Résumé:
The objective of this work was to study the effects of two mixtures of essential oils (EO of eucalyptus and mint) on the histo-morphological modification of the duodenum of broiler chickens at the end of growth period and on the microbiological quality of the broiler meat, hatched and reared under commercial conditions. The impact of these two EOs on the level of antibiotic resistance of enterobacteriaceae strains isolated from meat has also been demonstrated.
This study was carried out on a total of 72,000 Cobb 500 broiler chickens distributed in 4 farms of 18,000 chickens. The first two farms are supplemented by two different commercial mixtures; the first supplemented with Mentoreef (combination of phytobiotics 1: CP1) and the second with Mentofin (CP2). The 3rd farm was considered as the positive control and the 4th was the negative control.
The results of this study showed that the addition of eucalyptus and mint EOs induced an increase in the size of the villi of the duodenum in chickens from groups supplemented with EOs. However, the size of the villi was greater in the CP1 batch than the CP2 batch. Our results also demonstrated that EO supplementation reduced the number of Staphylococcus aureus and total germs compared to the negative control group. However, no effect was observed for enterobacteriaceae and thermotolerant coliforms. In addition, a decrease in the rate of resistance and multi-resistance in bacteria isolated from the EO-supplemented batches compared to the T- and T+ batches.
In conclusion, the use of essential oil of Eucalyptus and mint could constitute an interesting alternative to antibiotics in improving the zootechnical and health performance of broiler chickens and play an important role in reducing the rate of resistance to antibiotics.
