Growth Response, Haematology and Carcass Characteristics of Broiler Chickens fed Diets Supplemented with <i>Petiveria alliacea</i> Root Meal

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with one hundred and eighty (180) unsexed day old broiler chicks of Cobb strain to investigate the effects of feeding diets supplemented with Petevaria alliacaea root meal (PRM) on the performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chicken. The broiler chicken were brooded together for 7 days after which they were randomly distributed into 6 dietary treatments of 30 birds per treatment which were further divided into 3 replicates of 10 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. Six dietary treatments were formulated such that T1 which is control contained 0.00g/100kg of feed, while T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6 contained 500.00, 1000.00, 1500.00, 2000.00 and 2500.00g/kg of feed respectively. Data were collected on feed intake and weekly weight gain. Blood samples were collected from the animals through the wing web vein for haematological indices evaluation. At 56 days of the experiment, 6 birds were randomly selected per treatment, starved overnight, weighed and sacrificed by cervical dislocation for carcass analysis. Results revealed no significant (P>0.05) difference in all performance characteristics indices measured. Packed cell volume, Haemoglobin concentration, Heterophil and monocytes were significantly (P<0.05) influenced PRM supplementation. The results of carcass characteristics showed significant (P<0.05) difference in the values obtained for gastro intestinal tract, gizzard, heart and liver. It can be concluded that supplementing broilers diets with graded levels of PRM had no detrimental effects on the performance, haematological parameters and carcass characteristics.

Key words: Broiler, performance, haematology, carcass characteristics