HEALTH STATUS AND GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF BROILER FINISHER FED VARIED CONCENTRATION OF Polyalthia longifolia LEAF EXTRACT IN PLACE OF CONVECTIONAL ANTIBIOTICS

Abstract

Study was conducted to investigate the effect of Polyalthia longifolia leaf aqueous extract (PLLAE) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and blood profile of broiler chickens at finisher phase. 180 broiler chicks was used for the experiment and the birds were weighed and randomly allotted into 5 treatments, 3 replicates and 12birds/replicate using completely randomized design and data collected were subjected to analysis of variance using SPSS version 21 and significant means were separated using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test of the same software. Treatment group one birds were not given any medication except vaccine (negative control without PLLAE), T2 serve positive control (given synthetic antibiotic), and T3, T4 and T5 were given 15g, 30g and 45g of Polyalthia longifolia/litre of water, respectively. The inclusion of PLLAE had no significant (P>0.05) effect on growth performance, it improved the survivability of the broiler and PLLAE at concentration of 45g per litre of water numerically improved the growth performance of broiler chickens compared to control diets. This established the antibacterial quality of the PLLAE in broiler production. Nutrient digestibility parameters were significant differently and considering the broilers on PLLAE, value increase with increase in the concentration of PLLAE. Treatment 3–5 had significantly higher white blood cell, also, lymphocyte, neutrophil and red blood cell were significantly higher under treatment 3, this establish the health status of the animal to the PLLAE. Cholesterol increased with increase concentration of PLLAE, thus the research indicates the hypercholesterolemia quality of the PLLAE. It was concluded that PLLAE can be used in any concentration used in this study without causing an adverse effect on the growth performance hence provide alternative synthetic antibiotics.