FORMULATION OF ORGANIC AND ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY SAFE POULTRY FEED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF QUALITY MEAT

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the combined effects of buckwheat (BW), black cumin (BC) and honeyweed (HW) in broiler diets on the growth, feed intake, serum lipid profile, intestinal microflora and their antibiotic activity. Sixty (60) day old chicks (Cobb-500) were divided into four groups viz. T1(Commercial Control, CC), T2 (FF+10% BW), T3 (FF+10% BW+1.5% BC+5% (w/v) HW powder), T4 (FF+10% BW+3% BC+5% (w/v) HW powder) in complete randomized design with three (3) replications, each of which contain five (5) birds. The CC feed and the FF with BW, BC, and HW supplemented diet feed on broiler for 30 days. At the end of the study, the body weight gain, FCR and mortality rate were calculated. It was found that T3 (FF+10% BW + 1.5% BC+5% (w/v) HW powder) diet significantly (p≤ 0.05) showed the lowest FCR, mortality rate and the highest body weight gain. Interestingly, T3 decreased the serum cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and increased high density lipoprotein (HDL) significantly (p≤ 0.05). The remarkable differences of serum SGOT and SGPT level have been found between the commercial feed and BW, BC and HW supplemented diet. Surprisingly, histological study showed the low deposition of fat in liver in case of BW, BC and HW supplemented feed. Furthermore, T3 supplemented feed also suppressed total viable bacteria in the feces. We conducted the study to observe the antimicrobial activity against E. coli by using the methanol and water extract of combined BW, BC and HW in comparison of synthetic antibiotic tetracycline in vitro. Interestingly, methanol extract and water extract of combined BW, BC and HW showed the inhibition zone against the E. coli. Our results suggested that this newly formulated feed T3 (FF+10% BW+1.5% BC+5% (w/v) HW powder) could be considered as an alternative natural feed additive to hazardous synthetic antibiotics for safe and quality poultry meat production.