Effects of Chinese Herbal Medicine Feed Additives on Growth Performance and Dietary Nutrient Metabolism of Black-bone Chickens

[Objectives] To study the effects of Chinese herbal medicine feed additives on the growth performance and dietary nutrient metabolic rate of black chickens. [Methods] 480 pieces of 1-day-old Donglan Black-bone Chickens were selected and divided into 4 groups, with 6 replicates in each group, with 20 pieces in each replicate. Among them, group A was the control group and was fed the basal diet; the groups B, C, and D were the experimental groups, which were separately supplemented with 0.25%, 0.50% and 1.00% of Chinese herbal medicine additives in the basal diet, and the experimental period was 70 d. At the end of the feeding experiment, 24 experimental chickens with similar body weight were selected from each group, and the same design of the feeding experiment was used to continue to feed the original diet for the metabolic experiment to determine the nutrient metabolic rate. [Results] Except the 50-70 d stage, the average daily gain (ADG) of group B in other stages was increased by 5.00-9.15% (P<0.05), and the average body weight of group B at 70 d was also increased by 4.86% (P<0.05); the ADG of group C at 36-49, 1-49 and 1-70 d and the average individual weight at 70 d were also higher than that of group A by 5.90%, 2.66%, 2.68% and 2.57%, respectively (P>0.05); at 36-49 d, the average daily feed intake (ADFI) of group A was higher than that of group B by 6.04% (P<0.01), and was also higher than that of groups C and D by 5.12% and 4.13% (P<0.05), respectively; at 1-49 d, the ADFI of group A was higher than that of group C by 2.86% (P<0.05), and there was no significant difference between the four groups of experimental chickens at each stage (P>0.05); at 22-35 and 1-70 d, the feed to gain ratio (F/G) of group B was 6.32% and 3.41% lower than that of group A (P<0.05), and at 36-49 and 1-49 d, the F/G of group B was even lower; at 36-49 d, the F/G of group C was 10.15% lower than that of group A (P<0.05), and at 1-49 d, it was also lower than that of group A by 5.29% (P<0.01); there was no significant difference between the two groups at other stages. In terms of nutrient metabolism: the three different amounts of this additive have increased the metabolic rate of DM, CP, CF, NFE, CA, Ca, P, TE and other nutrients in the diet to varying degrees, especially the addition of 0.25% and 0.50% had the significant increase. [Conclusions] The addition of 0.25% Chinese herbal medicine additives in the diet can significantly improve the growth performance and main nutrient metabolic rate of Donglan Black-bone Chickens.