Growth Performance of Starter Broilers Fed Goat Blood-Rumen Content Mixture Based-Diets Supplemented with Aromatic Plants

Abstract

Starter broiler birds fed goat blood-rumen content mixture based-diet supplemented with aromatic plants was used to supplement soybean in the growth performance and economic analysis of birds. It was investigated using one hundred and twenty (120) day old broiler chicken of Anak strain. They were allocated to five dietary treatments with each treatment having four replicates of six birds eachinaCompletelyRandomizedDesign(CRD). Diet1wascontrol(0%GoatBloodRumenContentMixtureandaromaticplants). Diet 2 contained 10% GBRCM without aromatic plants supplementation. Diet 3, 4 and 5 contained 10% goat blood-rumen content mixture supplemented with garlic (Allium sativum), ginger (Zingiber officinale) and rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis) respectively. Parameters evaluated were; body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and economic analysis. The results showed that birds fed aromatic plant supplemented diets had significantly (p<0.05) improved in all parameters evaluated than birds fed the unsupplemented diet and the control diet. Diet 3 with 10% goat blood-rumen content and Allium sativum indicated the best performance followed by diet 4 then diet 5 respectively. The lowest cost per kg body weight gain (N168.24) was recorded for diet T₂ (10% GBRCM) while the highest cost per kg body weight gain (N 220.05) was obtained for diet T₁ (control). The GBRCM based-diet supplemented with aromatic plants reduced the high cost of feed materials increased productivity.