Influence of Trans-anethole on the Nutrient Digestibility and Intestinal Barrier Function in Broilers

ABSTRACT This experiment was undertaken to investigate the effects of dietary trans-anethole (TA) at 5 levels (0, 200, 400, 600 and 800 mg/kg of diet) on the growth performance, apparent nutrient digestibility and intestinal barrier function in broilers. 320 one-day-old Arbor Acres broilers were randomly divided into the 5 dietary treatments with 8 replicates each for 42 d. Dietary TA supplementation increased (P 0.05) on average daily gain (ADG), feed/gain (F/G) and body weight (BW) of broilers throughout the entire experimental period. The apparent metabolizable energy (AME) and nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn), the total tract apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), organic matter (OM) and gross energy (GE) showed a quadratic increase (P