With the increasing concerns over food safety during these years, there has been an intense
effort for substituting (eliminating) antibiotic growth promoters in poultry feeds. Therefore,
in order to investigate the effect of natural alternatives for antibiotics, an experiment
was conducted to examine the effect of virginiamycin, a prebiotic (Fructomix), and peppermint
(Mentha piperita) essential oil on productive performance, digestibility, intestinal
morphology and immune response of broilers. A total of 240 Ross 308 male broilers were
randomly (completely randomized design) allotted to five treatments, with four replicates
per treatment (12 chickens per pen). Birds were offered either a maize-soybean meal basal
diet (control, CON) or the basal diet supplemented with 200 mg/kg virginiamycin (VM);
200 mg/kg peppermint oil (PO1); 400 mg/kg peppermint oil (PO2); or 500 mg/kg Fructomix
(FM). After 6 weeks, daily live weight gain and feed intake were higher (P