COMPARATIVE EFFICACY OF NATURAL GROWTH PROMOTER (AV/AGP/10) WITH ANTIBIOTIC GROWTH PROMOTER ON OVERALL GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND INTESTINAL MORPHOMETRY IN BROILER BIRDS

ABSTRACT The inclusion of growth promoters in the feed is the most common and cost effective method of enhancing the performance of poultry. A 42 days study was conducted to assess comparative efficacy of herbal growth promoter product AV/AGP/10 (supplied by M/s Ayurvet Ltd. Baddi, India) with that of Antibiotic growth promoter in improving growth & performance, digestibility of nutrients and intestinal morphometry in broilers birds. A total of 120 day old chicks were divided randomly into 4 groups of 30 chicks each. All the groups were fed standard basal ration throughout the experiment. Group T 0 was control without any supplement, group T 1 was supplemented with AV/AGP/10@250g/tonne of feed, group T 2 was supplemented with AV/AGP/10@500g/tonne of feed and group T 3 was supplemented with antibiotic growth promoter (Vetclin112) @ 62.5 g / tonne feed. At day 42, group T 1 and T 2 showed significantly better (P<0.05) results in terms of body weight and feed intake and thus the mean FCR was also significantly better in group T 2 (1.84), followed by group T 1 (1.91), group T 3 (1.99) and control group T 0 (2.03). The digestibility of DM, OM, CP, EE, CF and NFE was highest in T 2 group followed by T 1 , T 3 and lowest in group T 0 . Significantly higher (P<0.05) dressing percent was seen in group T 2 (63.75 %), T 1 (62.55 %), T 3 (61.33 %) and lowest in group T 0 (60.08 %). There was 10% mortality in the control group T 0 , followed by 6.66% mortality in the T 3 group, 3.33% mortality in the T 1 group and no mortality in group T 2 . The intestinal morphometry examination showed the height of intestinal villi of duodenum, ileum and jejunum was highest in Group T 2 birds. From the results of the study it can be conclude that AV/AGP/10 is beneficial at both the dose rates as growth promoter in poultry. Thus, antibiotic growth promoter can successfully be replaced with herbal growth promoter AV/AGP/10 in the poultry feed