Effect of different levels of alcoholic extract of oak fruit added to drinking water on growth performance and carcass traits of Ross 308 broiler chickens

• Ali Mufeed Kazem - Assist. Prof Ali Almamury - Prof. Emad Abdul Jabbar

  Author

This experiment was conducted at the College of Agriculture, Department of Animal Production, Al-Qasim Green University, Iraq, from November 27 to December 31, 2025, to evaluate the effects of adding an alcoholic extract of oak fruit to drinking water on the growth performance of broiler chickens for a period of 35 days. A total of 300 one-day-old broiler chicks were randomly allocated to five treatment groups with five replicates and 12 birds per each replicate and fed a standard corn–soybean meal diet. Treatments included a control group without any additive and four groups receiving drinking water supplemented with the alcoholic extract of oak fruit at levels of 1, 2, 3, and 4 ml/L. Broilers receiving different levels of the alcoholic extract indicated no significant differences in body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), or feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared to the control group during the whole of experimental period (P > 0.05). The treatment groups indicated a significant decrease in thigh, liver and bursa of fabricius weights at 35 days of age (P < 0.05). "Based on the results obtained, the supplementation of drinking water with an oak fruit alcoholic extract at concentrations up to 4 mL/L did not adversely affect feed intake or feed conversion ratio (FCR) in broiler

• pdf