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WORLD'S POULTRY SCIENCE JOURNAL
Taylor and Francis
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Abstract: |
The key objective of poultry husbandry is to provide safe and nutritious
food for the growing population. The technique of delivering various
nutrients, nutraceuticals, vaccines, immunostimulants, phytochemicals
and medicinal herbs via the in ovo route is gaining wide attention
among scientists worldwide for improving poultry productivity, boosting
immune response and safeguarding the health. Embryonic growth
in poultry has been manipulated through direct administration of
biological compounds into embryonated eggs during the mid and
late phase of incubation. This shows potential to enhance hatchability,
superior nutritional status, higher chick quality, improve post-hatch
performance and ultimately reduce the challenges associated with
infections and oxidative stress, as well as minimize the use of synthetic
antibiotic growth promoters in poultry production. In the last two
decades, several studies have demonstrated that the in ovo supplementation
of herbs and their derivatives, such as chicoric acid, rosmarinic
acid, astragalus polysaccharides boost immunity, upregulates
antioxidant defense, and improves the health status and production
output of poultry birds, making herbal compounds an alternative to
antibiotic growth promoters. In ovo injection of herbs and their phytochemicals
has shown diverse advantages, including improvements
in weight gain, feed efficiency, growth rate, decreased morbidity and
mortality of embryos, boosted immunity, and improved health status
of poultry birds. Furthermore, in ovo injection of herbal compounds
has shown better protection against a number of infectious pathogens
than post-hatch supplementation. The current review aimed to provide
a promising insight for the promotion of in ovo technology in
order to supply natural biological compounds/phytochemicals directly
into the developing embryo to achieve an improvement in post-hatch
growth, immune responses, antioxidant defense and highlights the
future of in ovo technology as a strategy to minimize the use of AGPs
and improve the health status and production performance of poultry
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