Effects of lemmon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) leaf meal feed supplement on growth performance of broiler chicks.

摘要

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary inclusion of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) leaf meal (LGLM) on growth performances of broiler chickens and its ability to be utilized as a viable alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. 270 day-old Abor-acre broiler chickens were randomly separated into 3 experimental diet groups, with each being replicated 3 times. 90 day-old birds were randomly allocated to each group and 30 birds per replicate. The diet groups were diet 1 (D1 = control = basal diet), diet 2 (D2 = basal diet +1% LGLM) and diet 3 (D3 = basal diet + 1% teramycin antibiotic growth promoter). The birds were brood-reared for 6 wk. At 1 day old, the birds were weighed to obtain the initial wt. and subsequently weighed weekly to determine weekly body wt. and weekly body wt. gains. Other parameters taken weekly included feed intake, feed conversion ratio and mortality rates. All the parameters were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS 2006. Results obtained indicated that the performances of the birds placed on control diet (D1) were significantly (P < 0.05) lower in all parameters than those placed on D2 and D3. Results further indicated that, although the final body wt. of the birds on D2 (1895.56 g) was quantitatively higher than that of birds on D3 (1875.92 g), the difference was not significant (P