Vol. 11, Special Issue 10 (2022)

The current study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of broiler chicken with a phytogenic formulation as a replacer of antibiotic growth promoters on their growth, performance, carcass traits and intestinal morphology. Two hundred and ten (210) one-day-old, straight run Cobb chicks were randomly assigned to either of seven equal groups (T0-T6), each having three replicates, and reared for 42 days in deep-litter system at Institutional Poultry Farm, Gannavaram (16.54° N, 80.80° E) during February to March, 2018 without environmental control (mean ambient temperature 26 °C, relative humidity 73%). T0, receiving a standard basal diet without any growth promoting, antimicrobial or anti-coccidial agents, served as the negative control. T1 received a phytogenic growth promoter, Nbiotic™ (Ayurvet Limited, India) at 500 ppm in feed, T2 received Brand A (amoxycillin 50%) at 250 ppm, T3 received Brand B (ciprofloxacin 25%) at 500 ppm, T4 received Brand C (neomycin 10% + doxycycline 10%) at 500 ppm, T5 received Brand D (oxytetracycline 50%) at 500 ppm, and T6 received Brand E (tiamulin 10%) at 500 ppm of feed. Different parameters pertaining to growth, performance, carcass traits and intestinal morphology, including ultrastructural studies, were recorded in the birds and, unless stated otherwise, the statistical significance of the differences between group mean values were ascertained by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at p<0.05. Besides significantly better FCR than groups T0, T3, T5 and T6, and comparable FCR to groups T2 and T4, group T1 showed significantly better weight gain than group T0 and comparable growth to all other groups. Group T1 showed significantly higher values of serum albumin, serum total protein, height of ileal villi and depth of ileal crypts as compared to the unsupplemented control and the antibiotic-supplemented groups. Group T1 also showed significant improvements in body weight gain, muscle protein content, ileal villous width, jejunal villous height and width, jejunal crypt depth, and blood glucose over the supplemented control T0 and most of the antibiotic-supplemented groups. It could be concluded that the phytogenic formulation Nbiotic™ is an efficacious natural growth promoter for broiler chicken and that it could be used to successfully replace antibiotic growth promoters in broiler feeds for improving growth, performance, carcass traits and intestinal morphology.