author(s)
MA Gole, SJ Manwar, SV Kuralkar, SB Kawitkar, SP Waghmare, SP Chaudhary and SW Hajare

abstract
The present study was conducted to evaluate effect of supplementation of peppermint essential oil and organic acids on performance and gut health of broilers. The present research work was conducted on 420 Vencobb-400 straight-run broiler chickens. The day old chicks were randomly distributed into 8 treatment groups and each treatment group had 3 replicates of 20 chicks each. The control group (A) received basal diet and the different treatment groups viz. Group B received a basal diet supplemented with peppermint essential oil at 200 mg/kg, Group C, D, E received a basal diet supplemented with 1% sorbic acid, fumaric acid and propionic acid respectively. Whereas, group F, G and H received a combination of peppermint essential oil at 200 mg/kg with 1% sorbic acid, fumaric acid and propionic acid, respectively. At the end of the study, body weight and weight gain were improved in birds supplemented with a combination of peppermint essential oil with sorbic acid as compared to control and other treatment groups. The supplementation of essential oil and organic acids either singly or in combination showed significantly (P<0.01) better FCR compared to control group at the end of 6^th week of age. The TVC and E. coli count were significantly (P<0.01) reduced in treatment groups compared to control. The supplementation of combination of peppermint essential oil with sorbic acid was found most beneficial to enhance growth performance and gut health in broiler production.