FEED ADDITIVE AND ANTI-COCCIDIAL BENEFITS OF Lepidium sativum, Capsicum frutescens AND THEIR MIXTURES IN BROILER CHICKEN NUTRITION

Frequent use of antibiotics to stimulate growth and health of animals is becoming a common animal production practice. However, this leads to the development of antibiotic-resistant populations of microorganisms. In this context, alternatives like herbs and spices to antibiotics are of importance, as they are natural products. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to (1) evaluate the effects of Lepidium sativum (Garden cress, GC, Experiment I) and Capsicum frutescens (Hot red pepper, Hrp, Experiment II) on the performance, carcass characteristics, hematology, blood biochemical parameters and economic efficacy and (2) evaluate the anti-coccidial efficacy of GC, Hrp and their mixtures in broiler chickens experimentally infected with Eimeria tenella oocysts (Experiment III). A total of 204, 192 and 144 Cobb-500 day-old broiler chicks were used in Experiments I, II and III, respectively. Four treatment diets in Experiment I and II were inclusion of 0, 0.75, 1.50 and 2.25% of GC and Hrp, respectively. The 3rd experiment had 6 treatment groups with 3 replications. At the age of 15 days, chickens in group 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Experiment III were orally infected with ~105 sporulated E. tenella oocysts per 1 ml of inoculums whereas, chickens in group 1 was not infected. Chickens in group 3, 4, 5 and 6 consumed diet fortified with 0.75% GC, 0.75% Hrp, 0.38% GC+0.38% Hrp and 0.0125% amprolium, respectively starting from day two of age. Feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, carcass characteristic, hematology and serum biochemical parameters were recorded for all experiments. In addition, oocyst output, cecal lesion score and intestinal length were recorded in Experiment III. In Experiment I, the daily dry matter intake (DMI) increased with increasing GC level (p0.05).The DMI in the finisher and entire period of production was higher in uninfected-unfortified ration, 0.75% GC and amprolium groups in Experiment III. Average daily gain (ADG) for the entire period was greater (p