RESPONSE OF BROILER CHICKS TO DIETARY MORINGA SEEDS AND ZIGBIR AS NATURAL GROWTH PROMOTERS

Abstract

Abstract- In a 42-day experiment the effect of moringa seeds and Zigbir on growth performance and carcass characteristics

was studied. One hundred twenty, 1day-old, unsexed Ross 308 broilers were purchased from commercial hatchery. The

initial live body weight of the chick was (47.00 g ±0.67). The chicks were randomly assigned to 4 dietary treatments

containing 3 replicates of 10 birds each. Starter and finisher experimental diets consisted of control, 0.04% zigbir, 0.5%

undecorticated moringa seeds UDCM and 0.5% decorticated moringa seeds DCM. Data were analyzed in completely

randomized design using the general linear model (GLM) procedure. Feed intake, body weight gain, FCR and PER were not

significantly (P≥0.05) influenced by dietary treatments except feed intake during starter phase. Dietary moringa seeds both

decorticated or undecorticated significantly (P≤0.05) reduced feed intake during starter phase compared to control and zigbir

supplemented groups. However, DCM seeds improved overall body weight gain by 5.58, 5.78 and 10.43%, when compared

to control, Zigbir and UDCM seeds group, respectively. During all growth phases, the performance of birds fed dietary

zigbir was not significantly (P≥0.05) different versus control. On the other hand relative weight of breast was significantly

(P≤0.05) higher for birds fed DCM seeds compared to the others. It was concluded that supplementation of DCM seeds

improved growth performance of the broilers.