Efficacy of Some Herbal Feed Additives on Performance and Control of Cecal Coccidiosis in Broilers

Abstract

The effect of dietary incorporation of Azadirachta indica (neem) and Artemisia annua (A.annua) at levels of 10 and 5% on broilers performance and anticoccidial potency against Eimeria tenella (E.tenella) was studied. A total of 210 day-old Cobb chicks were allocated to seven groups each of three replicates. Three experimental isonitrogenous-isocaloric broiler diets were formulated for starter (0-21 d) and finisher (21-42 d) periods. For each treatment, two groups had been used, one was infected with 30×103 sporulated oocysts of E.tenella and the other was kept as negative control. For the control treatment, three groups were served as non-infected non-medicated control (GA), infected non-medicated control (GB) and infected-medicated control (GC). The average body weight gains (BWG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were recorded allover the experimental period. The anticoccidial evaluation post E.tenella infection depended on bloody diarrhea, mortality rate, cecal lesion score as well as the oocyst excretion (OE). On the pre-infection period, no significant difference could be observed due to the incorporation of either neem of A.annua compared to control regarding performance. The results in the post-infection period (21-42 d) suggested that either neem (10%) or A.annua (5%) incorporation in broiler diet was able to alleviate the adverse effect of E.tenella infection. These results emphasis the importance of both herbal plants not only as natural anticoccidial additive but also as a promising cheep feedstuff to be incorporated in broiler diets.