Tropentag, September 19 - 21, 2012 in Göttingen "Resilience of agricultural systems against crises"

Effects of Soyabean Oil and Garlic-in-Water Supplementation on Performance, Carcass Traits and Blood Indices of Broiler Chicken

Federal University of Technology, Dept. of Animal Production and Health, Nigeria

Abstract

Influence of soyabean oil and garlic (Allium sativum) dissolved in-water on the performance, carcass characteristics and haematological variables of broiler chickens was assessed. A total of 160-four-weeks old Harbor strains of broiler chickens were allotted to 4 dietary treatments with 10 birds in each of 4 replicates. A 2×2 factorial experimental arrangement of a completely randomised design was adopted. There were 2 finisher diets (non-soyabean oil and soyabean oil diets) supplemented with or without garlic in drinking water. The soyabean oil diet contained soyabean oil at 2 kg/100 kg of feed and garlic supplementation in water was at 1.8 g garlic/L. The study lasted for 4 weeks during which performance indices, water intake and apparent crude protein digestibility were measured. At the end of the feeding trial, 2 female chickens per replicate were sacrificed to evaluate the carcass characteristics, haematological variables and serum cholesterol. Final live weight (FLW) and total weight gain (TWG) of the birds were significantly (P<0.001) affected by dietary treatments with birds on the non-garlic supplementation consistently having higher values than those fed on garlic supplemented diets. Also, broilers fed on the soyabean oil-based diet had significantly (P<0.001) higher FLW and TWG than those fed the non-soyabean oil diet. However, the food conversion ratio (FCR) values of birds fed soyabean oil-based diet (2.46 and 2.54) were lower than those fed non-soyabean oil-based diet (2.56 and 3.01) for non-garlic and garlic-in-water supplementation, respectively (P>0.05).Total water intake of birds fed supplementary garlic (5.6±0.02 L/bird) was significantly (P<0.05) lower than those on non-garlic supplementation (5.9±0.31 L/bird). The carcass characteristics, relative weight of organs, haematological variables and the serum cholesterol concentration of the chickens were not significantly different between treatments (P>0.05). Garlic-in-water supplementation numerically reduced abdominal fat deposition from 19.5±5.85 to 18.7±8.74 g/kg live weight. Similarly, addition of soyabean oil to diets and garlic-in-water supplementation lowered (P>0.05) serum cholesterol level (140.9 vs 136.6; 145.8 vs 130.4 mg/dl). It was concluded that the supplementation of soyabean oil in the diet could lead to better broiler performance, and garlic-in-water reduces the abdominal fat deposit with a concomitant serum cholesterol reduction.

Keywords: Broilers, cholesterol, garlic, performance, soyabean oil

Contact Address: Olutola Jegede, Federal University of Technology, Dept. of Animal Production and Health, P.M.B.704, 40001 Akure, Nigeria, e-mail: orimidarahyahoo.com