Cecal Microbial Population
On d 28, the E. coli quantities of POL-0.2 and POL-0.4 were significantly less than that of CON (P < 0.05),and the E. coli number of POL-0.2 was significantly less than that of POL-0.4 (Table3). On d 42, the E.coli number of POL-0.2 was less than those of CON and POL-0.4, but there was no significant difference between POL-0.4 and CON. On d 28 and 42, the Lactobacillus number of POL-0.2 was significantly higher than those of CON and POL-0.4. The Lactobacillus number of POL-0.4 was higher than CON (P < 0.05; Table 3). On d 28, the Bifidobacterium numbers in POL-0.4
and POL-0.2 were significantly higher than that of CON (P < 0.05; Table 3). However, the Bifidobacterium number of the POL-0.4 group was significant lower (P < 0.5). On d 42, the Bifidobacterium number of the POL-0.2 was significantly higher than that of CON (P< 0.05). There was no significant difference between POL-0.4 and CON (P > 0.05). pH of Ileum and Cecum The pH of ileum and cecum contents of POL-0.4 and POL-0.2 were not significantly changed compared with
that of CON (P > 0.05).
DISCUSSION
Herbal medicine, as the treasure of Chinese pharmaceuticals, can be traced back to primitive society, and has been used in disease treatment and health care for a long time. Herbal medicine was used in the Ming and Qing dynasties as broiler feed additives with the purpose of preventing disease and increasing weight (Li,1988). Portulaca oleracea L. is a plant resource used as medicine and food. Zhang et al. (2003) reported that adding fresh P. oleracea to broiler feed led to good palatability and increased feed intake. Moreover, daily gain and FCR were enhanced notably. Other researchers found that broilers were resistant to infectious bronchitis
virus infection when 5% fresh P. oleracea was added to the daily ration (Pan et al., 1996). In our current experiment, the daily gain of broilers treated with P. oleracea extracts was higher than that of CON.