PERFORMANCE AND SERUM BIOCHEMISTRY OF BROILER CHICKEN FED GRADED LEVELS OF GARLIC ( Alliumsativum) POWDERAT STARTERPHASE IN SOKOTO, NIGERIA

Abstract

This experiment was carried out at the Research Unit of the Department of Animal Science, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto which is located at Veterinary Clinic, Aliyu Jodi Road, Sokoto.120 day old broiler chicks were studied in this research to determine the effect of garlic (Allium sativum) powder on the performance and serum biochemistry on the broiler chickens at starter phase. This experiment lasted for 4 weeks. Birds were randomly alloted to 5 treatments with 3 replicates each using CRD. Each treatment consisted of 24 birds and 8 birds per replicate. Treatment 1 was positive control with experimental diet only, treatment 2 was negative control with experimental diet with Neomycin antibiotic supplement and treatments 3, 4 and 5 were experimental diets with 1%, 2% and 3% garlic powder supplement.Results of the experiment showed significant (P<0.05) differences in average daily feed intake/bird, BWG and average daily weight gain/bird. There were no significant differences in initial body weight, final body weight, feed conversion ratio and mortality. There were also no significant difference in ALP, ALT, AST, Na, Cl and K.This experiment observed garlic had no effect on broiler growth performance and serum biochemistry at starter phase statistically. Although, numerically garlic supplemented treatments showed decreased liver enzyme activity in relation to antibiotic which indicated a
healthy status. It was also concluded that these effects may not be observed due to the short duration of the experiment.