GROWTH RESPONSE AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKEN SERVED WITH ETHANOLOIC Petiveria alliacae LEAF EXTRACT

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with three hundred day old broiler chicks to evaluate the effect of Peteveria alliacea leaf extract on growth response and carcass characteristics of broiler chicken in an 8 weeks trial. A total of one hundred and fifty (150) day old chicks of Arbor Acre strain were randomly allotted five treatment groups of 30 birds per treatment which were further divided into 3 replicates of 10 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. The birds were brooded together for 7 days before the commencement of the experiment. Birds on treatment one (T1) were served with ordinary water, T2 were served with water containing enrofloxacin (antibiotics) at 1ml per 4 litres of water for 5 days both at the starter and finisher phase, T3, T4, and T5 were served with 0.033g of the extract/litre, 0.67g of the extract/litre and 0.10g of the extract/litre of water respectively throughout the experimental period. Parameter measured includes feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and percentage mortality while two birds per replicate making six (6) per treatment were randomly selected, slaughtered and dissected for carcass evaluation. Result obtained showed no significant (P > 0.05) difference in all growth parameters measured. All carcass parameters measured except eviscerated weight and head were not significantly (p> 0.05) influenced by the leaf extract. It can be concluded that farmers can serve their broilers with Peteveria alliacaea leaf extract up to 0.10g/litre of water as phytobiotics without any detrimental effect on the growth response and carcass characteristics.