. 2021 Nov 26;11(12):3386. doi: 10.3390/ani11123386

Table 3.

Effect of essential oil delivery route on broiler chicken growth performance.

Growth Performance Parameters	Treatments ¹						SEM ²	p Value ³
Growth Performance Parameters	Negative Control	In-Feed Antibiotics	In-Water Essential Oil	In Ovo Saline	In Ovo Essential Oil	In Ovo Essential Oil + In-Water Essential oil	SEM ²	p Value ³
Average Feed Intake (g/bird)
D 1–14	305	292	308	272	296	294	27.5	0.845
D 15–28	1297	1303	1497	1182	1166	1139	67.6	0.386
D 1–28	1599	1604	1790	1447	1461	1439	92.7	0.449
Average Body weight gain (g/bird)
D 1–14	294 ^a,b	307 ^a	287 ^a,b,c	246 ^c	253 ^b,c	250 ^b,c	7.68	0.040
D 15–28	950	994	931	869	852	857	26.7	0.345
D 1–28	1243	1301	1217	1110	1104	1104	32.9	0.161
Feed conversion ratio
D 1–14	1.07	0.97	1.09	1.14	1.22	1.23	0.11	0.116
D 15–28	1.38	1.30	1.53	1.43	1.43	1.39	0.09	0.574
D 1–28	1.31	1.23	1.43	1.38	1.38	1.37	0.09	0.463
Average water intake (l)
D 1–14	1.09	1.24	1.14	1.08	1.04	1.13	0.03	0.448
D 15–28	2.68	2.69	2.74	2.51	2.49	2.94	0.08	0.527
D 1–28	3.75	3.90	3.86	3.62	3.53	4.05	0.07	0.232

¹ Treatments include—(1) Negative Control treatment- chicks fed a basal corn-soybean meal-wheat–based diet; (2) In-feed antibiotics- chicks fed NC + 0.05% bacitracin methylene disalicylate and (3) In-water essential oil- chicks supplied the essential oil via the water route at the recommended dosage of 250 mL/1000 L of drinking water; (4) In ovo saline treatment- eggs injected with 0.2 mL of physiological saline (0.9% NaCl); (5) In ovo essential oil treatment- eggs injected with 0.2 mL of a saline + essential oil blend mixture at a dilution ratio of 2:1, (6) In ovo + in-water essential oil treatment- chicks offered the essential oil blend via the in ovo and in water route, successively. ² SEM = Standard error of means. ³ Means within a row with different superscripts ^a,b,c differ (p < 0.05).