# The Use of Humic Substances as an Additive to Feed Mixtures in Pheasant Breeding

## TL;DR

Adding humic substances to pheasant feed improves growth and digestion, with benefits seen in weight gain and feed efficiency.

## Contribution

This study demonstrates the positive impact of humic substances on pheasant growth performance and digestive health.

## Key findings

- Pheasants fed with humic substances showed higher average daily weight gains and better feed conversion ratios.
- The experimental group had significantly increased body weight and relative weights of digestive organs.
- Droppings from the experimental group had higher dry matter content, improving litter conditions.

## Abstract

Various feed supplements can be used to influence production and health parameters in poultry farming, including pheasant farming. Humic substances are interesting compounds of bioactive matter that have found valuable application in agriculture, industry, medicine, and pharmacology. The addition of humic substances to feed or water has been shown to positively influence production parameters in different farm animal species. In poultry, improvements in growth performance, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, egg production, carcass yields, the quality of meat, and biochemical parameters have been demonstrated. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of supplementing feed mixtures with humic substances based on leonardite (Humac s.r.o., Košice, Slovakia) on growth performance, nutrient excretion, the weight of the digestive organs, the length of small intestine segments, the fermentation activity of the microbial population in the lumen of the digestive tract, and some biochemical parameters in pheasant chickens (Phasianus colchicus). The results of our study show that the addition of humic substances to feed mixtures in the amount of 5 g per kg can have a positive effect on the growth performance of pheasant chickens in the second phase of rearing.

The effect of humic substances on growth performance, excretion, and the digestive organs was studied in pheasant chickens. Three hundred 1-day-old pheasant chicks were assigned to two equal groups. Chicks in the experimental group were fed diets supplemented with humic substances (5 g/kg). Chickens in the experimental group reached significantly higher average daily weight gains (p ˂ 0.05) in the second phase of rearing (29–49 d) at a significantly better feed conversion ratio (p ˂ 0.05). The supplementation of humic substances led to a significant increase in the average body weight of pheasants at the end of the experiment (p ˂ 0.05), and to a significant increase in average daily weight gains for the entire monitored period (p ˂ 0.05). In the experimental group, significantly higher relative weights of the gizzard (p ˂ 0.05), small intestine (p ˂ 0.05), and jejunum (p ˂ 0.05), along with a significantly larger relative length of the duodenum (p ˂ 0.05), were recorded. A significantly higher concentration of dry matter in the droppings of pheasants was found in the experimental group than in the control group (p ˂ 0.05). According to our results, feeding humic substances had the most beneficial effect on pheasant growth performance during the growing phase. Humic substances can also have a positive effect on the microclimate within the breeding facility. Reductions in the water content of droppings contribute to a reduction in the humidity of the litter, thus limiting the activity of nitrogenic bacteria.