TROPICAL ANIMAL HEALTH AND PRODUCTION, cilt.56, sa.308, ss.1-8, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
Heat stress has various detrimental effects on poultry production. The aim of the study was to alleviate the effects of heat
stress in broiler production. For this purpose, 288 one-day-old broiler chicks (Ross 308) were obtained from a commercial hatchery and randomly allocated to one of three treatment groups; CON: corn-soybean meal based commercial diet,
SEO100: CON with 100 mg/kg Sage essential oil (SEO) and SEO200: CON with 200 mg/kg SEO with 96 birds in each
group (4 replicates each) in a completely randomized design under hot ambient temperatures for 42 days. No differences
were observed in the body weight, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio at 42 days of age among groups. However, there
was a significant increase in 21-day body weight in SEO200 chicks compared to CON. Furthermore, the addition of SEO
significantly decreased the mortality rate under heat stress conditions. The total oxidant status value was lower in broiler
chickens in which SEO was added to their diets. While the total antioxidant status value was higher in SEO100 chicks, it
did not show a linear increase. Additionally, the results demonstrated that the addition of SEO to broiler diets under heat
stress did not have a significant effect on inspected meat quality traits, with the exception of the b*(yellowness) value of
breast muscle. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that 200 mg/kg SEO can be added to diets for the welfare
of broiler chickens under heat stress conditions for struggling with oxidants and increasing viability. Further research is
needed to investigate the antioxidant activity and meat quality of different levels of SEO in hot ambient conditions.