CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS AND INTERNAL ORGANS PROPORTION OF BROILER CHICKENS ADMINISTERED WATER CONTAINING VARIOUS MEDICINAL PLANT LEAF METHANOL EXTRACT

Abstract

The discovery that the use of antibiotic in food animals is fueling the increasing problem of transmitting resistance bacteria from food animals to man has led to the search for an alternative to the use of antibiotics. To this end, the response of broiler chickens administered various medicinal plant methanol extract as a replacement for antibiotics was investigated. The plant extracts encompass four available leaves; Gereinia kola (Bitter Kola), Alcornea cordifolia (Christmas bush), Pterocarpus santalinoides (Red scandal wood) and Chromolera Odorata (Hagony or Siam weed). The experimental diet was same for all the treatment groups since the methanol extract of the leaves were administered in their drinking water against synthetic antibiotics. 180 unsexed Ross strain broiler chickens were randomly assigned to these dietary treatments which had 30 birds each. The treatments
were replicated thrice with 10 birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Feed and water were provided ad libitum throughout the experiment which lasted for 56 days. Carcass characteristics and internal organ proportions were considered which differed significantly (p<0.05). Treatment 5 (Alcornea Cordifolia) had a significant reduction in abdominal fat when compared to the positive control group. The findings of this study conclude that the medicinal plant methanol extract has considerable potentials as component of broiler chickens‟water. Alcornea cordifolia plant methanol extract can successfully be used to replace antibiotics for broiler production.