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Globally, there is increasing demand for safe poultry food products free from antibiotic residues. There is thus a need to develop alternatives to antibiotics with safe nutritional feed derivatives that maximize performance, promote the intestinal immune status, enrich beneficial microbiota, promote health, and reduce the adverse effects of pathogenic infectious microorganisms. With the move away from including antibiotics in poultry diets, botanicals are among the most important alternatives to antibiotics. Some botanicals such as fennel, garlic, oregano, mint, and rosemary have been reported to increase the poultry's growth rate and/or feed to gain ratio. Botanicals' role is assumed to be mediated by improved immune responses and/or shifts in the microbial population in the intestine, with the elimination of pathogenic species. In addition, modulation of the gut microbiota resulted in various physiological and immunological responses and promoted beneficial bacterial strains that led to a healthy gut. There is thus a need to understand the relationship between poultry diets supplemented with botanicals and good health of the entire gastrointestinal tract if we intend to use these natural products to promote general health status and production. This current review provides an overview of current knowledge about certain botanicals that improve poultry productivity by modulating intestinal health and reducing the negative impacts of numerous pathogenic bacteria. This review also describes the efficacy, negative effects, and modes of action of some common herbal plants applied in poultry as alternatives to reduce the use of antibiotics.

Improving poultry production, increasing poultry immunity, and reducing the disease spreading can be achieved by adding various potentially valuable ingredients to the feed or drinking water of poultry flocks. Because of the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in animal nutrition were prohibited. Additionally, consumer preferences tend towards purchasing products from livestock raised without antibiotics. Therefore, there is a critical need to find effective growth promoter alternatives and treatment methods for common poultry diseases. Some spice plants play important roles in improving the taste, aroma, and color of human food and their positive effects on human and animal health. The current review aimed to provide a broader perspective on some spice crops which can be effective alternatives to antibiotics in organic poultry production. These spices were including Thymus vulgaris, Cichorium intybus, Coriandrum sativum, Aloe vera, Heracleum persicum, Curcuma longa, and Glycyrrhiza glabra.

In Iran, approximately 70 % of goats are bred for meat and wool. Markhoz goat is one of the most important goat breeds reared in Kurdistan and Kermanshah regions for Angora - mohair production. Previous research has introduced several QTLs affecting mohair traits in Angora goats; this study aimed to confirm QTLs controlling mohair traits on chromosomes 1, 2, 5, 13, 19, and 24. For this purpose, eight bucks with an average of 32 offspring were taken into consideration. The studied traits included fleece weight, average fiber diameter, staple length, and fine, medullated, kemp fiber percentage. Thirty microsatellite markers on chromosomes 1, 2, 5, 13, 19, and 24 were used for genotyping. Microsatellite markers were selected according to previous studies and goat genetic map, based on their distance on the chromosome. The least-squares regression method was used to locate QTLs. Five QTLs significant affecting mohair traits: two of them related to mohair weight traits; one QTL was significant for fiber features and quality, in particular for fiber diameter, staple length and kemp fiber. Two of them are reported for the first time in chromosomes 1 and 2 for kemp fiber and fleece weight traits respectively.