Anticoccidial effects of dietary Vernonia amygdalina leaf meal in broiler chicken production

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of varying levels of Vernonia amygdalina leaf meal as anticoccidial in broiler chickens. Atotal of one hundred and fifty day oldmarshal broiler chicks were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments with 30 birds per treatment and replicated three times in a completely randomized design for a period of eight weeks. The treatments were: T1 naturally infected and treated with Coccidiostat drug (positive control), T2 naturally infected and not treated with Vernonia amygdalina (negative control), T3, T4 and T5 were naturally infected and treated with Vernonia amygdalina at 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.6% to 100kg of feed, respectively. Carcass and organ parameters were monitored while the liver and caecum were assessed for histopathological lesions. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed in all carcass parameters except drum stick, leg and neck weight. The dressed percentage ranged from 66.47%-70.98%. T2 had the highest value of live weight of 1591.17g and T5 had the lowest value. T3 had the highest percentage for plucked weight (90.29% ), eviscerated weight (76.79% ) and dressed weight (70.69%) while highest thigh (10.28% ), head (3.12% ), liver (2.45% ) and gizzard weights (2.52% )were obtained in T1.Histopathological result show that T4 was the best compared to T2. However, hepatocytes and lymphocytes were best produced at 400g inclusion level of Vernoniaamygdalina in the diet. Inclusion of Vernoniaamygdalina at 400g/100kg is safe and effective in combating the effect of coccidiosis in broiler without any significant detrimental effect on the organs of broiler chicken but cause a reduction in growth performance.