Vol. 11, Special Issue 1 (2022)

Author(s):
Nakita Bandu Bhargande, Sandip P Poul, Vaishnavi Chandrakant Are, Dhanashri Pradip Waghmare, Dhiraj H Kankhare and Vipul M Vasave

Abstract:
The present experiment entitled “Effect of Aloe vera powder (Aloe barbadensis) on growth performance and meat characteristics of Satpuda poultry” was conducted at Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy Science, College of Agriculture, Dhule, Maharashtra. One sixty, day old, Satpuda chicks were purchased from Balaji Hatcheries, Pvt. Ltd. Ahmadnagar, Maharashtra. They were randomly distributed into four groups T₀, T₁, T₂ and T₃ with 40 chicks in each group. The experimental broiler chicks were reared on deep litter system in well ventilated shed from 0- 8 weeks. The control group (T₀) was without Aloe vera powder, while chicks in treatment group T₁, T₂ and T₃ were fed basal diet with Aloe vera powder @ 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5%, respectively. The weekly body weight changes of chicks indicated no significant differences among various treatment groups during the first two weeks of the experiment. There was significant (P<0.05) difference in weekly body weights among the treatments from third weeks onwards. At the end of 8^th week, significantly higher body weight gain in the T₃ treatment group was recorded. The significantly higher feed intake was observed in T₃ group followed by T₂, T₁ and T₀. All treatments were non-significant FCR for first week. Statistically the significant (P<0.05) difference was observed in FCR from second to eight weeks. Average weekly feed efficiency at 8^th week of age was 3.76, 3.73, 3.65 and 3.41 in T₀, T₁, T₂ and T₃ groups, respectively. Better FCR was recorded in T₃ treatment as compared to other treatments. However, treatment T₀, T₁ and T₂ were at par with each other.