Óleo essencial de aroeira-vermelha como aditivo na ração de frangos de corte.

The aim was to evaluate the effect of inclusion of Brazilian red pepper oil (Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi), as an additive in feed on performance and intestinal morphometry of broilers. A total of 300 day-old male chicks, Cobb, distributed in a randomized design in groups of four (4) treatments and five repetitions, with 15 birds each: diet without growth promoter and without Brazilian red pepper oil (negative control); diet with growth promoter (antimicrobial and anticoccidial - positive control); diet containing only antimicrobial (bacitracin zinc); diet with 0.4% of Brazilian red pepper oil. It was not verified significantly dietary effects on the performance of birds (P>0.05). At 21 days of age, the broilers chicks fed with growth promoter showed greater ratio of villous:crypt which not differs from chickens fed with 0.4% Brazilian red pepper oil (P<0.05). The diet without growth promoter resulted in the lowest ratio of villous:crypt (P<0.05). The addition of Brazilian red pepper in the diet of broiler chickens reduced the relative weight of the intestines compared to broilers fed diet without growth promoter (P<0.05). In this study there was no significant difference in crypt depth and in villous height between treatments (P> 0.05). It was concluded that the addition of 0.4% Brazilian red pepper oil resulted an improvement in intestinal absorptive surface of broilers compared with chickens fed with diet without growth promoter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]