EFFECTS OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION OF Prosopis africana (African mesquite) ESSENTIAL OIL ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE, NUTRIENT RETENTION AND OXIDATIVE STRESS INDICES OF BROILER CHICKEN

Abstract

This research was undertaken to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of Prosopis africana essential oil on the growth performance, nutrient retention and oxidative stress indices of broiler chickens. A total of 540 one- day-old (Arbo acre) broiler chicks were randomly assigned to six treatment groups with six replicates of fifteen birds each. Experimental diet was adequate in all nutrients according to NRC (1994) recommendation. Dietary treatments were as follows: treatment 1 (T₁): basal diet with no Prosopis africana oil (PAOs); T2: basal diet plus neomycin at 2.5 g/kg while T3, T4, T5 and T6 were fed basal diet supplemented with 200 mg, 400 mg, 600 mg and 800 mg/kg PAOs respectively. Improvements for body weight gain and feed conversion ratio (P˂0.05) were observed in birds fed PAOs compared to the other treatments. Mortality rate was highest in T1 (5.33 %) followed by T2 (3.02 %) and T3 (1.00 %) (P˂0.05). Dressing percentage and weights of organs were significantly (P˂0.05) influenced by the treatments except the weights of kidney, spleen, pancreas and busra (P˃ 0.05). Dry matter and crude protein digestibility were highest in T3 through T6, intermediate in T2 and lowest in T1 (P˂0.05). Malondialdehyde, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, reduced glutathione and superoxide dismuatase were significantly (P˂0.05) different among the treatments.  It was concluded that the dietary supplementation of PAOs up to 800 mg/kg in broiler chickens could arouse its appetite translating to higher weight gain, increased secretion of enzymes in the gastro intestinal tract as well as reduction of free radicals