Veterinary World, EISSN: 2231-0916 1319 Veterinary World, EISSN: 2231-0916 Available at www.veterinaryworld.org/Vol.14/May-2021/34.pdf RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Physiological status of broiler chickens with diets supplemented with milk thistle extract Olga Bagno 1 , Sergey Shevchenko 2 , Antonina Shevchenko 2 , Oleg Prokhorov 1 , Anna Shentseva 1 , Grigory Vavin 3,4 and Elena Ulrich 1 1. Zootechnical Faculty, Kuzbass State Agricultural Academy, Russia; 2. Institute of Physics and Mathematics and Engineering and Technology, Gorno-Altai State University, Russia; 3. Kuzbass Clinical Hospital named after S.V. Belyaev, Russia; 4. Faculty of Technological Entrepreneurship, Kuzbass State Agricultural Academy, Russia. Corresponding author: Olga Bagno, e-mail: oaglazunova@mail.ru Co-authors: SS: se-gal@list.ru, AntS: shaisol60@mail.ru, OP: oldao@mail.ru, AnnS: anna-shenceva@mail.ru, GV: okb-lab@yandex.ru, EU: elen.ulrich@mail.ru Received: 24-12-2020, Accepted: 12-04-2021, Published online: 26-05-2021 doi: www.doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.1319-1323 How to cite this article: Bagno O, Shevchenko S, Shevchenko A, Prokhorov O, Shentseva A, Vavin G, Ulrich E (2021) Physiological status of broiler chickens with diets supplemented with milk thistle extract, Veterinary World, 14(5): 1319-1323. Abstract Background and Aim: In recent decades, the use of various feed supplements is the current trend in poultry farming, among which phytogenics serve as alternatives to feed antibiotics. This study aimed to examine the effect of feeding various doses of milk thistle extract (Silybum marianum) on the morphological and biochemical parameters of the blood in broiler chickens. Materials and Methods: Experiments were carried out in an industrial poultry farm on broiler chickens of the Hubbard ISA F15 cross for 40 days. One control group and five experimental groups of day-old chickens were formed. The number of birds in each group was 50. Broilers of all groups received complete feed, and the experimental groups received an additional milk thistle extract at doses of 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mg/kg of body weight. Milk thistle medicinal plant extract was obtained using water-ethanol extraction followed by low-temperature vacuum drying. For the assessment of blood analyses, samples were collected from the wing vein of six chickens per group. Using unified methods recommended by the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry, the content of red blood cells, hemoglobin, white blood cells, total protein, protein fractions, triglycerides, glucose, calcium, phosphorus, and the concentration of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase in the blood serum were determined. Results: It was found that the introduction of milk thistle extract into the diet of broiler chickens with the aforementioned doses increased the number of red blood cells, hemoglobin, white blood cells in the blood, as well as a decrease in the level of albumin and an increase in the content of γ-globulins in its serum. Conclusion: The authors assume that the introduction of milk thistle extract into a complete feed for broiler chickens increased the anabolic processes in their bodies, accompanied by increased use of proteins of the albumin fraction as the main material for organogenesis. Keywords: blood biochemical composition, feed supplement, hemoglobin, milk thistle (Silybum marianum), red blood cells, white blood cells. Introduction When methods aimed at improving productive efficiency were used in industrial poultry farming, the load on all functional systems of the birds’ bod- ies inevitably increases. Intensification of feeding and impairment of welfare decrease birds’ resistance, causing the percentage of morbidity to increase, safety issues to arise, and productivity to decrease. The liver is the organ that primarily reacts to the influence of the above factors. To prevent the negative impact of technological factors in the poultry industry, various feed supplements are used. The introduction of func- tional feed supplements in the diet of poultry improves regenerative processes in the birds’ bodies as a whole, particularly the liver, to reduce the negative conse- quences of intensive cultivation technologies and obtain competitive high-quality products [1]. In recent years, technologies based on replac- ing synthetic feed antibiotics with alternative agents, such as biologically active substances extracted from medicinal plants with various properties, have become a global interest [2-4]. The natural origin of phyto- genic feed supplements determines their environmen- tal safety [5,6]. One of the medicinal plants currently widely used in medicine is milk thistle (Silybum mar- ianum). The effects of using milk thistle are deter- mined by the main biologically active compounds in its fruits. Thus, silybin acts as a stabilizer of per- meability of cell membranes, protecting hepatocytes from toxic substances, and is used as a hepatorenal Copyright: Bagno, et al. Open Access. 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