Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of feeding different levels of cinnamon essential oil (CEO) on growth performance, nutrient utilization, carcass traits and biochemical profile in broiler chicken. Day old broiler chicks (n=180) were randomly divided into 6 groups with 3 replicates of 10 chicks in each. Six types of diets (T0-T5) were formulated, T0 consisted of basal diet without antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) as negative control (NC), T1 contained basal diet with AGP, T3 to T6 contained basal diet with graded levels of CEO (200, 300, 400 and 500 mg/kg) respectively. Significantly (P<0.01) higher weight gain and improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) was obtained in birds of group T4 as compared to other groups during finisher phase. The feed intake was significantly (P<0.01) lower in group T4 as compared to other dietary groups. The supplementation of CEO @400 mg/kg diet significantly (P<0.05) improved the metabolizability of crude protein. No significant difference was observed in calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) balance among the dietary groups. However, high density lipid (HDL) cholesterol and alanine transaminase (ALT) activity differed significantly among the groups. Significant (P<0.05) difference in defeathered, eviscerated and dressed weight was observed among all the treatment groups. The present study concluded that cinnamon oil can be safely incorporated at the rate of 400 mg/ kg in the diet of broiler chicken as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoter.