Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology

A biological trial was carried out to study the antibiotic efficacy of turmeric oil (TO) in commercial broiler chicken. One hundred and forty four day old broiler chicks were randomly grouped into six dietary treatments having four replicates in each. The experimental diets were basal diet (CON), basal diet plus antibiotic (500 ppm oxytetracycline-OTC), basal diet plus 0.025% TO (TO-1), 0.050% TO (TO-2), 0.075% TO (TO-3) and 0.100% TO (TO-4), respectively. Antibiotic supplementation had no significant effect on body weight gain (BWG) during different growth phases. In prestarter phase, TO at 0.075 and 0.100% levels led to significant reduction in BWG compared to antibiotic supplemented group. However, during starter, finisher and overall growth phases, the BWG of turmeric oil fed groups were comparable to antibiotic supplemented group. TO at 0.025 and 0.050% levels resulted in comparable feed intake during prestarter and starter phase, however, in finisher phase, the feed intake was markedly higher (P<0.01) than antibiotic fed group. No significant difference was observed in feed efficiency between antibiotic and turmeric oil supplemented groups during prestarter and starter phase. However, in the finisher phase, the feed efficiency markedly improved (P<0.01) in 0.025 and 0.100% TO groups. TO had no significant effect on dressing percentage, relative weights of liver, heart, gizzard, giblets and abdominal fat. But, 0.025% TO resulted in significantly higher weight (P<0.01) of spleen, whereas at higher levels, the relative weight of spleen was comparable to antibiotic group. It could be concluded that, supplementation of TO at 0.025% level instead of antibiotic feed additive would produce similar effect on production performance and carcass characteristics in broiler chicken.