Vol. 4, Issue 5, Part A (2019)

Methods: 720 one-day-old chicks were randomly distributed into three groups, namely, normal control (basal diet), HELP control (diet to induce fatty liver syndrome) and PHF (HELP diet plus PHF (400 g/ton)).

Results: HELP diet exhibited a negative impact on performance indices (body weight gain - BWG, average daily feed intake - ADFI and feed conversion ratio - FCR) and carcass traits and increased the level of triglycerides (p<0.05) and total lipids in liver samples as compared to normal control group. HELP diet also induced fatty vacuolations, ballooning degeneration of hepatocytes in the liver. However, supplementation of PHF significantly improved the performance characteristics and liver triglycerides level. Similarly, histopathology of liver tissue showed normal hepatocytes with regenerative hyperplasia (restoration of hepatic parenchyma).

Conclusion: HELP diet induced a negative effect on production performance, liver fat, and histopathology. However, supplementation of PHF reversed these undesirable changes to normal with histological amelioration of fatty liver indicating the hepatoprotective function of PHF in birds fed with HELP diet.