Effect of dietary supplementation of thyme and garlic essential oils on the growth performance and carcass characteristics in commercial broilers

Tulasi, R., Srilatha, T., Srinivas, G., Kumari, N.N., Kumar, A.V. and Mounika, T. 2024. Effect of dietary supplementation of thyme and garlic essential oils on the growth performance and carcass characteristics in commercial broilers. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 59(02): 221–225.

A biological experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of thyme and garlic essential oils individually and in combination on growth performance and carcass characteristics. Two hundred-day-old commercial broiler chicks were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments with ten replications of 5 birds each and reared in a battery brooder up to 42 d of age. Broilers were fed on corn-soy-based broiler pre-starter (1-14 d), starter (15-28 d) and finisher (29-42 d) diets. The treatment consists of a control diet supplemented with no essential oil (CD), a control diet supplemented with thyme essential oil (TEO) or garlic essential oil (GEO) @ 25 g/100 kg and thyme and garlic essential oil (TGEO) @ 50 g/100 kg. Performance parameters were recorded at weekly intervals and at the end of the experiment; the birds were slaughtered, dressed then used for assessment of carcass parameters. Dietary supplementation of essential oils was effective in improving body weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio. No significant difference was observed in carcass characteristics. Overall body weight gain (BWG) and overall feed consumption were significantly (P<0.05) improved in essential oil supplemented groups than the control. Supplementation of TEO and GEO in the diet significantly (P<0.05) improved body weight gain, feed consumption and FCR compared to TGEO and CD. It was concluded that using essential oils as feed additives enhanced the overall performance of broiler chicks.