Publication:

Efficacy of Kalo Jeera seeds (Nigella sativa) and Thankuni (Centella asiatica) supplementation on the growth performance of broiler chicken

Background In modern era, treatment methods become diversified and developed day by day and organic medicine is one of the modern technology which also introduced in our poultry sector. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of Thankuni (Centella asiatica) and Kalo Jeera (Nigella sativa) powdered supplementation as a growth promoter in broiler chickens.

Methods A total of 20 day-old Cobb 500 broiler chicks were randomly divided into two groups, A and B after seven days of acclimatization. The group A was kept as control and fed on only normal balanced diet. The group B was treatment group fed on normal diet with additional supplementation of Thankuni and Kalo Jeera powder in water. For observation of growth rate, live body weight was taken at first day and every seven days interval up to 5th weeks. Besides it hematological tests were performed at 35th days for searching hematological changes in both groups.

Results The initial body weight of groups A and Bon 1st day of this experiment were 43.00 ± 0.56 gm and 42.50 ± 0.35 gm, respectively and after 35th day of experiment final body weight were 1450 ± 57.35 gm and 1700 ± 58.56 gm (p<1%) respectively. The growth rate of treatment group B was 17.24% more (p<1%) than that of control birds. Although the dressing percentage of both group was equal but relative weight of heart, liver, spleen and pancreas were significantly higher (p<0.1) in treatment group indicates better flock health. Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) were 1.88 in treated birds and 2.28 in control birds was the sign of economy rate of production and were analyzed and found that net profit per broiler was Tk. 10.50 (0.12 USD) and Tk. 33.00 (0.4 USD), respectively. General blood parameters of treatment group were non-significantly higher than control group.

Conclusions The results suggest that better growth performance were achieved in broilers supplemented with Thankuni leaf and Kalo Jeera. Both of these two herbal medicines have antimicrobial, immunostimulatory, anti-stress, fungi static, insecticidal and liver tonic properties so that there were no mortality rate. Now it can be said that uses of Thankuni and Kalo Jeera has beneficiary effects in broiler production.