SHORT-TERM LAYING PERFORMANCE OF NOILER, NIGERIAN HEAVY ECOTYPE CHICKEN AND THEIR CROSSES GIVEN VARYING AQUEOUS LEVELS OF NEEM LEAF AND GINGER ROOT EXTRACTS

Abstract

The effect of neem and ginger extracts on the short-term laying performance of Noiler, Nigerian Heavy Ecotype chicken and their crossbred was investigated. A total of 180 sixteen week old chicken from 3 genetic groups consisting; 60 hens from a cross between Noiler cocks × Noiler (NN) hens, 60 hens from a cross between Heavy Ecotype cocks × Heavy Ecotype (HH) hens and60 hens from a cross between Noiler cocks × Heavy Ecotype (NH) hen were used for the study. The hens from each genetic group were randomly assigned to 4 treatments with 15 birds per treatment as follows: T1: No plant extracts, T2: 200 ml neem, T3: 200 ml ginger and T4: 100 ml neem + 100 ml ginger. The interactions between genotype and treatment levels showed significant (p<0.05) differences in all the laying performance parameters studied except feed conversion ratio. The mean values observed in this study revealed that the Noiler birds on NE200 (3374.79±62.23; 1169.71±31.09) and GE200 (3471.79±41.88; 1218.00±20.81) had better final weight and total weight gain with main cross (MC) on GE200 (1181.19±24.06) than the other treatments. In addition, Noiler birds on GE200 had the best egg mass (51.78±2.86), hen-day egg production (82.94±1.83) and egg weight (64.97±0.62). Based on the obtained results, it could be concluded that NN and main cross on GE200 and NE100+GE100 levels were appropriate probably without exhibiting deleterious effects on the laying characteristics of the birds.