Igbosha H. k., Agbeshon D.A, Onuoha M. K
The effect of administering graded concentration levels of Vernonia amygdalina (bitter leaf) extract to broiler birds for growth performance and health promoter potential (haematological parameters) was evaluated. The birds were randomly distributed into six treatments with three replicates per treatment, each replicate having 10 birds. Treatment 1 is the control treatment given only water, treatment 2 were given Neocyrl® antibiotics (1.5 g at manufactures prescription), treatments 3, 4, 5 and 6 were given bitter leaf extract at different graded concentrations (2.5, 5, 10, 15 g per liter of water, respectively). The highest weight gain (WG) was observed in the birds in treatment 5 compared to those in other treatments. The result showed that the haematological parameters was only significant (p > 0.05) at erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), mean cell volume (MCV), mean cell haemoglobin (MCH) and mean cell haemogloblin concentration (MCHC). For growth performance, only final weight gain, daily weight gain, total feed intake and the feed conversion ratio was significantly(p ≤ 0.05) different by the treatments.
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