Effect of Feeding Garlic (Allium sativum) and Ginger (Zingiber Officinale) Mixture on Performance and Immune Response of Broiler Chicks

Abstract

A total of 160 one-day old unsexed (Ross-308) broiler chicks were randomly divided into 4 experimental groups of 40 chicks. Each group was further subdivided into 4 replicates at the rate of 10 chicks per each. Two broiler starter and finisher basal diets were formulated; a mixture (1:1) of ginger and garlic powder was added to the diets resulting in four experimental groups. Group (A) fed on basal diets without garlic and ginger mixture (0.0 %) serve as control group. The other three groups (B), (C) and (D) were fed on basal diets supplemented with graded levels of ginger and garlic mixture (0.2%, 0.3% and 0.4%) respectively. The experimental diets were fed for 6-weeks duration. The performance of the experimental birds in term of feed intake (g/bird), live weight gain (g/bird), feed conversion ratio (g feed/g gain) and mortality rate (%) were recorded. At the end of the experiment three birds from each replicate were randomly selected and slaughtered, spleen, liver, heart and gizzard were weighed individually, blood samples were collected and blood serum for antibody titres against Newcastle Disease (ND) and Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) viruses were measured. Results revealed that supplementing broiler diets with 0.2% mixture of garlic and ginger significantly improved mean weight gain (g/bird) ,live body weight (g/bird) and feed conversion ratio (g feed/g gain) .High inclusion rates (0.3% and 0.4% resulted in a significant ( P?0.05) reduction in the same performance parameters. On the other hand, antibody titres against Newcastle disease (ND) and Infectious bursal disease (IBD) viruses of all birds fed garlic and ginger mixture supplemented diets showed a significant (P?0.05) improvement. Meanwhile, no significant effects were observed on liver, spleen, heart and gizzard weights.