EFFECTS OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTION OF ALGAE (Spirulina plantensis) AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO ANTIBIOTIC ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND HEALTH STATUS OF BROILER CHICKEN

Abstract

A total of 150 day-old Cobb 500 broiler chicks were reared in Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Poultry Farm, Dhaka. The present study was designed to evaluate the productive performance and health status of commercial broiler chicks fed diet containing DSP (Dried Spirulina Powder) compared to antibiotic based diet. Chicks were divided randomly into 5 experimental groups of 3 replicates (10 chicks with each replications).One of the 5 experimental group was fed this diet as control while, the remaining four groups were fed diet with 3 levels of DSP (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5%) and antibiotic. The results showed that the body weights, dressing percentage and survivability were non-significant (P>0.05) by the dietary inclusion of DSP as compared to control fed broilers. However, a linear increase in body weight had found with the increase in DSP level in the diet. Birds fed 1.5% DSP diets achieved superior body weights (1604.22± 62.88) compared to those of the control and antibiotic group. Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) and feed consumption was significant in comparison to others. Though best FCR results found at 0.5% level of DSP but it was very close at 1.5% level of DSP. The relative weight of spleen and bursa of different groups showed that there was no significant (P>0.05) difference between the groups. In addition, the present study showed that feeding dietary Spirulina had no significant (P>0.05) effects on liver, gizzard, intestine and heart weight among the treatments. The results of hematological studies showed no significant (P>0.05) differences due to supplementation of dried Spirulina powder, except Red blood cell (RBC), Lymphocyte and Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration (MCHC) which were significantly affected (p<0.05) compared with control and antibiotic. Moreover, Inclusion of dried Spirulina powder to broiler chicks diets found relative weight of liver, heart, gizzard and intestine weight which had no significant (P>0.05) differences among the treatments. Although the trends of weights were higher in DSP supplementing group compared to the antibiotic and control. However, addition of DSP to broiler chicks diets showed significant (p<0.05) difference in bacterial colony count among the groups. The DSP supplementing groups showed low amount of E coli and Salmonella sp compared to control but statistically no deference with antibiotic group. Best results found at 1.5% inclusion level of DSP