Abstract
Background: Herbal additives are rich in vitamin C, A and other biological active compounds and may act as a good alternative source to overcome heat stress in broiler chicken. Among herbal additives, rough lemon, amla and aloe vera were easily available during summer and also have an additional advantage of throw away price in comparison to synthetic feed additives available in market. Methods: In order to investigate the effect of supplementation of rough lemon (Citrus jambhiri Lush), amla (Emblica officinalis) and aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller) on the performance of broiler chicken (Cobb strain) under summer season, 240-day old chicks were randomly distributed to four treatment groups (n=60). Basal diet (maize-soya based; T0) was same for all the groups except the supplementation of rough lemon juice, amla juice and aloe vera gel @ 2% in drinking water in T1, T2 and T3, respectively. Body weight gain, feed Intake, FCR were calculated during the experiment trial lasted for 42 days during June-July at F.V.Sc. and A.H., R.S. Pura, Jammu. The maximum and minimum temperature was recorded daily at 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. by using digital maximum minimum thermometer. Result: Body weight gain and FCR was found superior in T3 (P greater than 0.05) than T2 and T1 and was inferior in T0. Weekly water intake (ml/bird) was lower in T2 and T3. Benefit cost ratio was highest in T3 (1.313) followed by T2 (1.271), T1 (1.231) and least in T0 (1.071). It may be concluded that aloe vera gel supplementation resulted in better broiler performance followed by amla juice and rough lemon juice supplemented groups.
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call