Effect of dietary supplementation of black pepper (Piper quineense) leaf and seed meals on growth performance and blood characteristics of the finisher broiler chickens

Abstract

The study was designed to evaluate the performance of broiler chickens fed diets supplemented with Piper guineense leaf (PLM) and seed (PSM) meals. The harvested samples were air dried, blended and their proximate composition determined. Seven diets were formulated, with the treatment diets supplemented with the PSM and PLM at 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 %, respectively. One hundred and eighty nine, 28 days old broiler chicks were divided into seven (7) groups and each assigned to one of the seven diets and fed for 28 day of the experiment. The experimental design used was the randomized complete block design. The crude protein values of 15.86% and 10.16% were recorded in the PLM and PSM, respectively. Dietary inclusion of PSM improved the total weight gain, with the highest value of 72.08 g/bird observed in the 0.6% PSM diet group. Birds on a control diet recorded the highest average daily feed intake of 138.50g/bird, while those on a 0.4% PLM diet had the lowest average daily feed intake of 122.86 g. Dietary inclusion of PSM and PLM improved the feed conversion ratio of chickens relative to those on control group. Supplementation of diets with PSM and PLM did not influence (P > 0.05) the dressing percentage of the chickens, but the relative weights of neck and wing were influenced (P<0.05) at 0.6% of PLM. The concentrations of haemoglobin, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, packed cell volume, and white blood cells in the chickens fed PSM and PLM diets were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than in those fed the control diet. The results on the biochemical indices showed significant (P <0.05) differences in cholesterol, globulin, glucose and total protein levels between birds on a control diet and those fed treatment diets. It was therefore concluded that dietary supplementation with PSM improved the performance of finisher broiler chickens relative to the PLM. Broiler finisher diets may be supplemented with 0.6% of PSM for optimum performance.