Akintunde,A.R,*, Gideon, S., Oguntoye, M.A, Akinsola, O.M., Adeoye, S.O.B., Isaac S., Istifanus, E.F., Taphee, D.G. and Ayuba, A.

• access_time27 May, 2024

  subjectCategory: Agricultural Sciences

• An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of diets containing ginger root meal (Zingiber officinale) supplemented with and without organic acids on the growth performance and nutrients digestibility of broiler chicks. A total of two hundred and fifty (250) day old broiler chicks was used. Basal diet which served as the control (T1) contained no organic acid was formulated, while diets 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 respectively contained ginger meal at 15g (T2), 30g (T3) and 45g (T4) without organic acid supplementation, 15g (T5), 30g (T6) and 45g (T7) supplemented with organic acids. Each treatment was replicated three times with 12 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design (CRD). The experiment lasted for 4 weeks. Results showed that final weight, weight gain, and feed conversion ratio of birds differed non-significantly (P>0.05) across all the treatment groups. However, total feed intake and daily feed intake were significantly (P<0.05) higher in birds fed the control diet (988.23g, 35.39g) but were similar to those fed ginger meal based diets T2 (901.93g, 32.21g), T3 (968.91g, 34.60g) and T4 (920.73g, 32.88g) without organic acid when compare to those in organic acid groups. Apparent nutrient digestibility of the birds revealed a significant (P<0.05) variation in all parameters across the dietary treatments. Dry matter digestibility was statistically (P<0.05) higher in birds fed ginger based diets without organic acid while other parameters did not follow a particular trend. It was therefore concluded that feeding of diets containing ginger meal with or without organic acid had no adverse effect on the performance and nutrients digestibility of broiler starter chicks.
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