Publication Details
Abstract
This experiment was undertaken to examine the influence of dietary supplementation of Clinopodium brownei oil on growth performance and some blood parameters of Hubbard broiler chickens. 400 – 1 day old Hubbard broilers of mixed sex were randomly distributed into four groups (T1, T2, T3 and T4) of 100 birds. Each group was further divided into five replicate consisting of twenty birds. Treatment T1 (Negative group/control): experimental diet without any additive, T2 (Positive control): experimental diet with 2.5 g Adriamycin® /kg diet, T3: experimental diet with 2.0 mL Clinopodium brownei oil per kg diet, T4: experimental diet with 4.0 mL Clinopodium brownei oil per kg diet. Experimental diet was formulated to meet the nutrient requirements for broilers requirements according to NRC (2012) recommendations. The experiment lasted for 42 days and a completely randomized design was adopted. Feed and fresh water was always made available. Overall result obtained reveals that in T3 and T4, the body weight gain and feed consumption was higher; in T2, it was intermediate; and in T1, it was lower (p<0.05). Dietary supplementation of significantly enhanced (p<0.05) red blood cell, pack cell volume, haemoglobin and white blood cell count. Clinopodium brownei oil supplementation decreased serum cholesterol concentration, mortality, feed conversion ratio and increase (p<0.05) concentrations of total protein, albumin, globulin, alanine amino transferase and aspartate transaminase. In conclusion, Clinopodium brownei oil supplementation at 2.0 mL or 4.0 mL/kg diet improved body weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio and some blood constituents without compromising the health status of birds.