THE EFFECTS OF DIETARY DRIED CHLORELLA POWDER SUPPLEMENTION AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO ANTIBIOTIC ON PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE AND HEALTH INDEX OF BROILER CHICKEN

Abstract

The use of chlorella as an immune and growth stimulant to enhance nonspecific host defense mechanisms or as an antimicrobial to inhibit bacterial growth has been reported. Thus, a total of 120 day-old Cobb 500 broiler chicks were reared in Sher -e-Bangla Agricultural Universit y Poultry Farm, Dhaka. The present study was designed to evaluate the productive performance and health status of commercial broile r chicks fed diet containing DCP (Dried Chlorella Powder) compared to antibiotic based diet. Chicks were divided randoml y into 4 experimental groups of 3 replicates (10 chicks wit h each replications).One of the 4 experimental group was fed this diet as control while, the remaining three groups were fed diet with 2 levels of DCP (0.5% and 1.0%) and antibiotic. The results showed that the body weight (1665.13 a ±8.81) was significant (P<0.05) highest at 1% DCP and the dressing percentage were also significantl y higher (P<0.05) by the dietary inclusion of DCP as compared to control fed broilers. However, a linear increase in body weight had found with the increase of DCP level in the diet. Significantl y less feed was consumed (2287.30 c ±8.895) to gain better FCR (1.37 c ±.010) at 1% DCP in comparison to others. The relative weight of spleen and bursa of different groups showed that there were no significant (P>0.05) difference between the groups. The present study showed that DCP had no significant (P>0.05) effects on liver, gizzard, intestine and heart weight among the treatments. The results of hematological studies showed no s ignificant (P>0.05) differences except Hemoglobin, Red blood cell (RBC) which were significantl y affected (P<0.05) by dried chlorella powder 1% compared with control and antibiotic. However, addition of DCP to broiler chicks diets showed significant (P<0.05) difference in bacterial colony count among the groups. The DCP supplementing T 3 (0.5%)and T (1%)groups showed lower number of E. coli and Salmonella sp. and higher number of Lactobacillus sp. compared to control group. Treatments with DCP significantl y (P<0.05) increased Newcastle disease (ND) titre level as compared to control group.