1M.V. Sc. Student, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India
2Professor, Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India
3Associate Professor, Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India
4Assistant Professor, Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India
5Associate Professor, L.P.M, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India
*Corresponding Author e-mail: deepika.trip87@gmail.com
Online published on 24 April, 2014.
To study the effect of herbal feed additives on growth performance, one hundred twenty broiler Japanese quail were divided in complete randomized block design, into control (C) and three treatment groups (3 each) viz: T1, T2 and T3 with 30 birds in each group. The diet offered to control group was without feed additive while in treatment groups 0.5% ajwain, 0.5% hot red pepper and 0.25% black pepper respectively were provided to the birds through the basal diet. The quails were reared in deep litter system and offered starter diet upto 1–2 weeks of age and thereafter they were offered finisher diets during 3-6th week of age. A feeding trial of 5 weeks was carried out to ascertain the effects of herbal feed additives on the feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and performance index. There was a significant improvement in FCR and body weight gain in Japanese quail of hot red pepper supplemented group followed by black pepper treated group. It may be concluded that feeding of hot red pepper and black pepper significantly improved the performance of broilers, thereby improving the profitability of broiler industry.
Japanese quail, Ajwain, Hot red pepper, Black pepper
