Effect of black cumin (nigella sativa) and garlic (allium sativum) as natural feed additive on growth performance of kaveri chicken

Shinde, S.S., Londhe, G.K., Patil, R.A., Nikam, M.G. and Gaikwad, B.S. 2024. Effect of black cumin (nigella sativa) and garlic (allium sativum) as natural feed additive on growth performance of kaveri chicken. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 59(2): 143–151.

The present experimental trial was conducted to study the effect of black cumin (Nigella sativa) and garlic (Allium sativum) as natural feed additive on growth performance of Kaveri chicken a backyard poultry variety. Three experimental trials were carried out in three distinct seasons for the experiment. The first trial took place in the winter, from 22 October 2020 to 31 December 2020; the second trial took place in the summer, from 27 February 2021 to 8 May 2021; and the third trial took place in the rainy season, from 5 June 2022 to 14 August 2022. The experimental trials were conducted using two hundred-day old Kaveri chicks for a period of ten weeks. The chicks were split up into in five treatments of 40 chicks in each treatment with four replications of ten chicks. The basal diet was given to the control (T₁) group, while the feed was supplemented with Neodox @ 250g/tone of feed, 1% black cumin seed, 1% garlic mash and 0.5% black cumin seed + 0.5% garlic mash for the T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅ groups. The results of the present experiments indicated that basal diet supplemented with combination of black cumin seed and garlic mash (0.5+0.5%) increased body weight, weight gain, feed consumption, water intake and improved feed conversion significantly (P<0.05). The significantly higher body weight, weight gain, feed consumption and better feed efficiency was recorded in T₂ group followed by T₅, T₄, T₃ and lowest in T₁ control group in each trial. It was concluded that 0.5+0.5% black cumin seed and garlic mash in Kaveri chicken diets can be used as natural feed additive by replacing antibiotic and enhancing growth performance, feed conversion of Kaveri birds.