Poultry farmers constantly source for alternative feed additives for feeding poultry birds to improve the quality and health benefits of their meat and egg. It is common knowledge that synthetic feed additives (antibiotic growth promoters) are accompanied by some limitations. These limitations include amongst others, the detrimental residual effects accompanying the consumption of the meat and egg products of poultry birds fed antibiotic growth promoters. Also, they cause resistance to some bacteria both in poultry and humans. Recently, increased efforts have been put into utilizing plant-based feed additives in the nutrition of poultry birds, due to their minimal toxicity concerns and holistic functional attributes. Pomegranate is an important fruit that cannot be overlooked among the spectrum of natural feed additives. The potential of pomegranate fruit peel to replace in-feed antibiotic growth promoters in poultry nutrition is quite promising. The current review provides an overview of the usefulness and potential utilization of pomegranate peel as a natural and alternative growth promoter in the nutrition of poultry birds. The pomegranate fruit peel promotes growth, stimulates immune responses, enhances the shelf-life of meat, improves egg quality, increases nutrient release. It also improves bone quality, and ensures the release of odorous gases from poultry manure, which may be linked to its rich antioxidant and bioactive phenol and tannin constituents. Tannin is one of the anti-nutrients that limits the performance of poultry when it is included in the diet. Despite huge benefits of pomegranate inclusion in poultry performance, its tannin content may be a source of worry and these concerns needs to be addressed through further research in order to maximize the full potentials of pomegranate. However, pomegranate shows potential to provide nourishment to poultry birds and positively enhance the health indicators of human consumers of the products (meat and egg). Manuscript profile

The effect of Aspergillus xylanase (ASXYL) supplementation to maize-soybean diets on serum aspartate aminotransferase, serum alanine aminotransferase, microbial examination, growth traits, carcass characteristics and meat quality traits of broiler chickens was investigated. Three hundred one-day-old mixed sex “Cobb 500” broiler chicks were allotted to 5 dietary treatments with 5 replicates of 12 birds each. The treatments include, ASXYL0 (0 g/kg), ASXYL10 (1 g/kg), ASXYL15 (1.5 g/kg), ASXYL20 (2 g/kg) and ASXYL25 (2.5 g/kg). Birds fed ASXYL20 had the highest (P<0.05) body weight with an improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) and a higher values for thigh, breast, wing and carcass yields. Neck weight was high (P<0.05) for fed birds ASXYL0, ASXYL15 and ASXYL20. Drumstick recorded higher (P<0.05) value for birds fed ASXYL20 though, similar to ASXYL10, ASXYL15 and ASXYL25. Drip and cooking loss decreased (P<0.05) with increased supplemental levels of ASXY while shear force increased (P<0.05) as ASXYL supplementation increased. Urea, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase decreased (P<0.05) with increased supplemental levels of ASXYL while glucose level increased (P<0.05) with increased levels of ASXYL supplementation. Supplementary ASXYL influenced (P<0.05) the proliferation of Lactobacillus counts in ileum and caecum while no difference (P>0.05) was observed on the population of Bifidobacteria and Escherichia coli in both ileum and caecum of broilers at the end of the feeding trial. It was concluded that dietary ASXYL20 produced a much improved body weight and retail cut yields. Again, the bio-markers showed that ASXYLimproved the health status of broiler chicken and the tested enzyme influenced a positive intestinal environment. Manuscript profile