Effect of Gongronema Latifolium (Utazi) Leaf Extract on the Performance of Broiler Chicken

Abstract

The effect of Gongronema latifolium leaf extract on broiler starter was evaluated using growth performance. A total of 150 day-old Cobb chicks were randomly selected, weighed and assigned into five experimental treatments namely: treatment 1 which served as the control and composed of water and a vitamin electrolyte product (vitalyte), treatment 2 had 0.4% of the leaf extract, treatment 3 contained 1.2% of the leaf extract, treatment 4 had 2% of the leaf extract and treatment 5 comprised 2.8% of the leaf extract. At the end of four weeks, the final weight gain, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio was highly significant (p<0.05) while the average daily weight gain was significant (p<0.05) in favour of treatment 2. The study showed that G. latifolium had nutritional benefit on the performance of broiler starter and could conveniently replace the use of synthetic commercial micronutrients in poultry farming since it had no adverse effect on the birds.