Effects of Dried Centella Asiatica Leaf Meal as a Herbal Feed Additive on the Growth Performance, Heamatology and Serum Biochemistry of Broiler Chicken

A 42 days experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of dried Centella asiatica leaf meal (CSP) as an herbal feed additive on the growth performance, haematology and serum biochemistry of broiler chicken. A total of 200 Ross 308 day old broiler chicks of mixed sex was divided into four (4) treatment groups of fifty (50) birds, each group was further divided into five replicates each of ten (10) birds. Group A was fed basal diet + 0% CPS (control), group B,C and D were fed basal diet + 2%, 4% and 6% CPS respectively. The basal diet was formulated to meet the nutritional requirements of birds according to NRC (1994). Feed and water was provided unrestricted and a completely randomized design and birds were vaccinated according to the prevailing disease in the environment. The results obtained showed that there were significant (p0.05) the daily feed intake and mortality rate. All the hematological and serum biochemical parameters were not significantly (p> 0.05) different among the treatments. It can be concluded that the inclusion of CPS at 6% enhanced the overall performance of the birds without causing any deleterious effect on the health of the animals.