Influence of ginger (<i>Zingiber officinale</i>) on histology, blood profile and internal organ characteristics of broilers

Abstract

A study using ninety-nine day old Marshal Broiler chicks was conducted to investigate the effect of ginger root meal on the histology, blood profile and internal organ characteristics of broilers. The birds were randomly assigned to three dietary treatments replicated three times in a completely Randomized Design. Each dietary treatment consisted of 33 birds per treatment with 11 birds per replicate. Ginger root meals were supplemented at 0%, 1.5% and 3.0% representing Diet 1, Diet 2 and Diet 3 respectively. At the end of the experiment, three broilers from each replicate were sampled, slaughtered, its internal organs, tissues of the heart, liver, kidney and small intestine were collected and processed for histopathology. Blood samples for hematology and serum biochemistry were collected, analyzed and recorded. Data collected on different parameters were subjected to Analysis of Variance. Results showed that no significant differences (P>0.05) were observed on all the internal organs and on the hematological parameters. There were significant differences (P<0.05) on the serum biochemistry. The histopathology of the internal organs showed that addition of ginger root meal above 1.5% in poultry diets could be detrimental to some internal organs.

Keywords: Blood profile, Broilers, Ginger, Hematology, Histopathology, Organ
morphology.