Growth and body morphometric parameters of broiler chickens orally administered varying levels of lemongrass extract, at finisher phase

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the growth and body morphometric parameters of broiler chickens orally administered varying levels of lemongrass extract at finisher phase. A total of 150 ROS 308 day old broiler chicks were allotted into five (5) treatments containing ten (10) chicks with three replications in a completely randomized design. The diets consist of; T1 control (not administered antibiotic or lemongrass extract), T2 (administered 0.2 mls of antibiotic), T3 (administered 0.2 mls of lemongrass extract), T4 (administered 0.4 mls of lemongrass extract) and T5 (administered 0.6 mls of lemongrass extract). Data were collected on growth performance and morphometric parameters. The collected data were analyzed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the differences among mean were separated using Duncan Multiple range. The results showed that broiler chickens administered varying level of lemongrass extract had no significant difference (p>0.05) in the growth parameters. The average body weight of broiler birds in T3 was significantly (p<0.05) higher as compared to those in T1, T2, T4 and T5. The birds administered varying level of lemon grass extract (T3, T4, T5) recorded higher weight gain and feed intake than T1 (control group) and T2 (0.2mls antibiotic), and were not significantly affected (P>0.05). Feed conversion ratio was significantly higher (p<0.0.5) in T5 (2.82) as compared to T1 (2.81), T2 (2.49), T3 (2.77) and T4 (2.73). Also, for the morphometric parameters, there were significant (p<0.05) differences in average initial body width, final body girth, final shank length and shank length gain compared to other parameters which were not significantly (p>0.05) affected. It can be concluded that the use of lemongrass extract improved the growth performance as well as better performance of the morphometric parameters, and can therefore be included at the levels 0.6 mls and 0.2 mls without adverse effect.