Extratos vegetais de manjerona e romã sobre frangos Cobb, como organismos não-alvo

Abstract

The search for a more sustainable agriculture, with environmental-friendly pest control, such as the use of plant extracts, is increasing. Nevertheless, the toxicity of these alternative control methods to non-target organisms must be assessed. Thus, the objective of this work is to evaluate the effect of 5% aqueous extract of marjoram (Origanum majorana L.) and promegranate (Punica granatum L.) on chicken (Gallus domesticus L.). The plant extracts were prepared with the plants ground dried leaves. The resultant powder was mixed with distilled water to obtain 5% plant extracts and were kept away from light for 48 hours. After filtered, the extracts were added to the birds feed, according to EPA (OCSPP 850.2200). This project has been approved by UTFPR’s Animal Research Ethics Committee. We used 36 young female birds from Small Animals Facility (UTFPR-DV). The animals went through acclimation for three days before the experiment. The plant extracts were administered for six days, always preceded by 14 hours starvation, to guarantee they would feed and ingest the extract. The birds were evaluated for 11 days. No death was recorded. We observed the birds behaviour, food intake and weight gain. By the end of the experiment, all animals were sacrificed and histopathological tests were carried out. There was no statistical difference between treatments in relation to the average feed intake and average weight of birds. The behaviour observed was similar for all groups. Also, there was no difference between the treatments and control regarding weight gain and feed intake. However, the intestinal villi showed larger surface area on the control group, indicating that the use of plant extracts reduced absorption area. Additional studies should be performed with marjoram and pomegranate but with other part of the plants, different extraction technique to obtain more information on their security to non-target organisms.