GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF BROILER CHICKENS ON COLD AQUEOUS JATROPHA TANJORENSIS LEAF EXTRACTS

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the growth performance, cost and returns of broiler chickens on cold aqueous leaf extract of Jatropha tanjorensis. A hundred and fifty (150) anak 2000 broiler chicken was randomly allotted into five (5) treatment groups (T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5) in a completely randomized design (CRD). Each treatment group contained three (3) replicates with ten (10) birds each per replicates and the experiment lasted eight 8 weeks (56days). The birds were fed commercial starter diet for one week acclimatization period after which they were fed formulated started and finisher diet. The T1 (control) which took the antibiotic (Doxygen) in drinking water, while the birds in T2, T3,T4, and T5 were offered cold aqueous leaf extract of Jatropha tanjorensis leaves at 25mL, 50mL, 75mL and 100mL per liter of drinking water, respectively. The result showed the different dosages of CALEJ did not significantly (P>0.05) influence the live weight, daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio but the daily feed intake on broiler chicken were significantly (p<0.05) Influenced. Average live weights were statistically similar (p>0.05) among birds with respective values of 824.44, 878.89, 835.56, 866.66 and 872.22 g/bird in treatments 1 (control), 2 (25mL CALEJ), 3 (50mL CALEJ), 4 (75mL CALEJ), and 5 (100mL CALEJ). In this study, it was observed that the administration of different dosages of cold aqueous leaf extract of Jatropha tanjorensis did not adversely affect the growth performance and feed efficiency of broiler chickens. However, the best growth performance, cost and returns were obtained in broiler chickens administered 25mL CALEJ per litre of drinking water. This therefore revealed the potential of cold aqueous leaf extract of Jatropha tanjorensis as probiotics additive in poultry production.