Research on the feasibility of incorporating phytobiotics into broiler chicken diets represents a promising direction in scientific inquiry. This study aimed to evaluate growth rate, feed nutrient digestibility, and slaughter traits of broiler chickens following dietary supplementation with 4-hexylresorcinol (4-HR). We experimented on Arbor Acres broiler chickens and formed four groups of 35 birds each. Birds in the control group received the basal diet (BD), whereas birds in the experimental groups received the BD supplemented with 4-hexylresorcinol at doses of 62.5 mg/kg (Group I), 125 mg/kg (Group II), and 250 mg/kg (Group III). The average daily gain of broiler chickens in Group III was 27.00% lower than that of the control group (p ≤ 0.001). Birds in Group II showed higher digestibility indices for the starter diet compared with the control: the digestibility coefficient of crude fat increased by 3.30% (p ≤ 0.001), carbohydrates by 2.94% (p ≤ 0.01), and organic matter by 2.24% (p ≤ 0.05). During the grower period, the advantage of Group II over the control in digestibility amounted to 15.9% for carbohydrates (p ≤ 0.001), 14.6% for dry matter (p ≤ 0.01), 12.7% for organic matter (p ≤ 0.01), and 6.0% for crude protein (p ≤ 0.05). In Group I, only the carbohydrate digestibility coefficient exceeded the control significantly, by 9.65% (p ≤ 0.05). Preslaughter live weight in Group II exceeded the control by 6.02% (p ≤ 0.05), whereas Group III showed a decrease of 25.45% (p ≤ 0.001). Dressing percentage increased in Groups I and II by 0.87% (p ≤ 0.05) and 1.21% (p ≤ 0.001), respectively, while Group III exhibited a decrease of 1.09% (p ≤ 0.001). Supplementation of broiler chicken diets with 4-hexylresorcinol at a dose of 125 mg/kg as a feed additive provides the greatest improvement in productivity.
Duskaev et al. (Fri,) studied this question.