Vol. 11, Special Issue 11 (2022)

Author(s):
R Karthick, K Rajendran and P Shamsudeen

Abstract:
A biological trial was conducted in commercial broiler chicken from day one to 35 days of age to evaluate the effect of Eclipta alba on growth performance of broiler chickens. One hundred and fifty day-old straight-run commercial broiler chicks were randomly assigned into three treatment groups with two replicates per treatment and containing 50 chicks per treatment. The treatment groups were fed broiler diets supplemented either without E. alba (Control – T₁) or with E. alba @ 0.25 g/kg diet (T₂) or with E. alba @ 0.50 g/kg diet (T₃). The control diet without experimental material was formulated as per BIS standard. The broiler chickens were fed ad libitum with standard and uniform management conditions under deep litter system in a thatch roofed open sided poultry house. The result revealed that the group fed diet supplemented with E. alba @ 0.50 g/kg diet (T₃) had significantly (p<0.01) higher body weight and weight gain than the control group (T₁) or the group fed diet supplemented with E. alba @ 0.25 g/kg diet (T₂). However, T₂ did not differ significantly with control group (T₁). The cumulative feed intake did not differ significantly between treatment groups on 35^th day of age. The supplementation of E. alba at either level (T₂ and T₃) significantly improved the feed conversion ratio than the control (T₁) without supplementation of E. alba. However, there was no significant difference between T₂ and T_3. At the end of trial, the return over feed cost was significantly (p<0.05) higher in the treatment group supplemented with E. alba @ 0.50 g/kg diet (T₃) than the group either supplemented with E. alba @ 0.25 g/kg diet (T₂) or unsupplemented control group (T₁). However, there was no significant difference between T₁ and T_2. Hence, it may be concluded that E. alba could be supplemented in broiler diet @ 0.5 g/kg for increasing the body weight gain, improving the feed conversion ratio and for increasing the return over feed of broiler chicken.