Impiego della silimarina dell’alimentazione del pollo da carne – The use of silymarin in the broiler feeding.

SUMMARY – The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of silymarin, a natural polyphenolic compound with antioxidant and hepatoprotective properties, on broiler performances and health status. Silymarin was fed to broiler at the doses of 40 mg/Kg and 80 mg/Kg of feed. At these doses, any significative difference was shown between groups in live weight, breast meat yield, abdominal fat yield and carcass weight. At both levels, the treatments improved feed conversion (resp. –3.68% and –2.63%), health status, with a reduction of the mortality in experimental groups (resp. 3.33% and 5.00% vs 6.67%) and the oxidative status of muscular tissue (5.21a±2.77 and 6.48a±1.17 vs 8.81b±1.67 mg MDA/kg of tissue).