Department of A.H. & Dairying, Institute of Agriculture Sciences, BHU, Varanasi - 221 005 (U.P.)
*Corresponding authors: email - ramniwasbhu@gmail.com
Online published on 29 April, 2013.
An experiment was conducted involving Sixty six broiler chicks (Cobb-400 strain) from day old to 5 weeks of age to study the response of Livkey (herbal drug) on the growth performance and blood biochemical attributes in broiler chicken. All the chicks having similar body weight were randomly divided into two groups; first group as control and second one as treated group. Each groups having 33 broiler chicks reared under deep litter system and were routinely dewormed and vaccinated against Ranikhet and fowl pox diseases. Both groups offered broiler starter (2-21days) and finisher (22-35days) diet except variation in supplementation of Livkey (herbal drug) @ 50 ml/kg diet in treated group only. The results showed significant (P<0.05) improvement in body weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion efficiency (FCR) and performance index during 0–5 weeks of age as compared to control one. However, haemoglobin, plasma glucose, proteins and serum cholesterol concentrations were similar in treated and control groups. Based on the results it is concluded that a supplementation of Livkey @ 50 ml/kg diet as a feed additives is beneficial for improving growth, feed utilization and profit margin in broiler chickens.
Herbal drug, feed additive, growth, blood biochemical, broiler chicken