Effects of dietary supplementation of tumeric, black pepper and their combinations on growth response, heamatology, serum biochemistry, gut microbial counts, and meat quality of broiler chickens

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of supplementation of turmeric, black pepper and their combinations on the growth response, haematology, serum biochemistry, gut microbial counts and meat quality of broiler chickens. The broiler chicks were fed one of the six experimental diets. These includes: i) a corn-soybean basal diet without feed additive (T1), ii) The basal diets with 1% black pepper (T2), iii) The basal diets with 1% Turmeric powder (T3), iv) The basal diets with 0.25% black pepper + 0.75% turmeric powder (T4), v) the basal diets with 0.75% black pepper + 0.25% turmeric powder (T5), vi) The basal diet with 0.5% black pepper + 0.5% turmeric powder (T6). In completely randomized design (CRD) and lasted for 6 weeks. Data was collected weekly on weekly growth performance. Blood samples were collected for haematology and serum biochemical indices. At the end of the experiment 2 birds per replicate were sacrificed, opened up, faecal samples were collected from the ileo- caecal junction for gut microbial counts. Results of growth response revealed significant (p<0.05) dietary effects on final weight, weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR). For blood parameter, white blood cell (WBC), eosinophil, cholesterol, High density lipoprotein (HDL) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) were significant. While all other parameters measured were not significant (p>0.05). The meat quality attributes results show that water holding capacity were significantly influenced. The study concluded that supplementing broilers diets with  a combination of (0.5% turmeric + 0.5% black pepper) will results in good feed conversion ratio and did not have any detrimental effects on the haematological and serum biochemical indices.