EFFECTS OF NEEM (Azadirachta indica) AND BITTER (Vernonia amygdalina) LEAVES EXTRACTS ON GROWTH, HEMATOLOGY AND SERUM BIOCHEMICAL INDICES OF BROILER CHICKEN

A study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of oral administering neem and bitter leaf extract as natural feed additive for broiler chicks on feed Intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), carcass parameters, hematological serum biochemical parameters, chick mortality percentage, sensory evaluation of meat, chemical composition of meat and partial budget analysis of broiler chicks. Unsexed one hundred ninety-two, day-old Cobb 500 broiler chick with initial weight of 42.16±0.65 (mean± SD) grams were randomly distributed to four treatments each with three replications in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Feed offered and refusals were recorded every day and Feed Intake (FI) was calculated as the difference between the two. Data on Feed Intake (FI) Average daily gain (ADG), and Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) were analyzed for starter (1-21 days) and finisher (22-42 days) phases as well as for the entire experiment period (42 days) separately. At the end of the trial, four broilers were randomly picked up from each replication and slaughtered for carcass evaluation and the treatments were used water contain combination of bitter and neem leaf extract 0 ml, 2 ml, 4ml and 6 ml per liter of water for T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. The CP and ME content of neem leave powder (NLP) and bitter leave powder (BLP) were 23.40% and 2716.06 Kcal/Kg DM and 21.50% and 3048.96 Kcal/Kg DM respectively. The average daily feed intake (ADFI) during the entire period was 104.49, 116.07, 118.65 and 122.32 g/bird (SEM=2.03) for T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively, and it was significantly higher (p