The paper “Essential oils as a strategy to improve gut histomorphometry and performance of broilers: systematic review and meta-analysis“, published in The Journal of Agricultural Science, has been chosen as the latest Editorial Highlight and is freely available to download for one month. 

In the last few years, the interest for the development of feed additives has significantly increased, with the essential oils emerging as a promising alternative for the substitution of antibiotics in animal production. The interest in the search for alternatives to antibiotics in poultry production has been increasing, especially with the focus on essential oils due to their remarkable bioactive properties. This interest is based on the biological properties of the essential oils, such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities. Essential oils are volatile and aromatic compounds extracted from plants, many of which show a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, affecting gram-positive as well as gram-negative bacteria. Essential oils antimicrobial efficacy is intrinsically related to two important characteristics: their lipophilic character and the ability to penetrate in the membranes of bacterial cells, due to this lipophilic property. This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of essential oils on the performance and gut morphometry of broilers, by using an approach of systematic review and meta-analysis.

In the conduction of the systematic review, three electronic databases were consulted in January 2023. Out of an initial amount of 162 papers, only 27 met the requisites to be included in the database. Furthermore, after the use of established criteria for the meta-analysis, only 16 papers were qualified for the evaluation of the aimed parameters. In the meta-analysis, it was observed that the supplementation had significant impact of 2.88% in weight gain, in comparison to the basal diet. In addition, the supplementation of essential oils significantly improved gut morphometry parameters such as villus height in the ileum (15.66% higher), and 8.26% increase in the villus height to crypt depth ratio in jejunum compared to the basal diet Dietary essential oils improves the growth performance and gut histomorphometry of broilers, even when combined with antibiotics as growth promoters.

The Journal of Agricultural Science Editorial Highlights are selected by the Editor-in-Chief and are freely available for one month. View the recent selections here.