Comparative effects of supplementation of growth promoters in broiler chicken diets on growth performance, carcass and meat characteristics

This study compared the effects of two growth promoters on the performance, carcass and meat characteristics as well as their retention in meat of broiler chickens. A total of 100 birds were used for this study. The chicks were brooded for 20 days, on a basal control diet ad libitum and at 21 days 90 birds were randomly allocated two dietary treatments and a control treatment, each treat-ment was replicated thrice with 10 birds per replicate. The birds were fed starter diet from day 1-28 and finisher diet from day 29-56. The experimental diets were arranged thus: T1 = Control diet, T2 = Antibiotic (Oxytetracycline 0.15%), T3 = Diet with Probiotic (Probioenzyme 0.15%). The study was conducted with randomized design experiment and analysed with analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan multiple range test was used to separate the means at p = 0.05. There were significant (p<0.05) differences in the performance, carcass profile and offal characteristics of birds fed antibiotic and probiotic with birds fed probiotic having higher values. Birds fed diet with probiotic (T3) furnished meat with higher (p<0.05) water holding capacity (61.94%), and cooking yield (89.66%) with lower (p<0.05) losses and shortenings than meat from birds fed antibiotic (T2) diet. The fat content and pH of meat from birds fed diet T3 were lower (p<0.05) compared with those obtained in meat from birds fed diet T2, hereas birds fed diet T2 retained residues, mostly, which were higher (p<0.05) in internal organs than in the muscles when compared with birds in T3. All the sensory properties of meat tested, with the exception of tenderness were higher (p<0.05) in meat from birds fed diet T3 and the meat were highly accepted than meat samples from birds fed diet T2. This study was limited to the use of chicken and inclusion of antibiotic and probiotic in diets to compare the efficacy of probiotic with the view to adapting for use in livestock production. It was concluded that birds fed diets with probiotic performed better than those fed antibiotic. It was recommended that probiotic at 0.15% could be included in broiler diets for high efficacy and lower residual effect in meat for safe consumption