Albizia Lebbeck Stem Bark Aqueous Extract as Alternative to Antibiotic Feed Additives in Broiler Chicks Diets: Performance and Nutrient Retention

A study was conducted to examine the effect of Albizia lebbeck stem bark aqueous extract (ATSM) as alternative feed additives in broiler chicks diets: performance and nutrient retention. Three hundred and seventy five (350) one-day-old Ross 308 broiler chicks of mixed sex were used for the experiment, the animals were reared in a deep litter poultry house and distributed into five treatment containing 75 birds each, each treatment was further divided into 5 replicates consisting of 15 birds each in a completely randomized design. Birds in treatment 1 (T1) were fed 0% ATSM, T2 were fed Oxytetracycline at 1.20 g per litre of water, T3, T4 and T5 were given ATSM at 10 ml, 20 ml and 30 ml per litre of water respectively. Clean feed and water were provided ad libitum throughout the experiment which lasted for 56 days. The result obtained revealed that there was average daily gain, average daily feed intake and feed: gain was influenced by the dietary treatments (P<0.05). Birds in T5 had the highest weight gain (2424.2 g) followed by T4 (2371.3 g), T3 (2119.4 g), T2 (2053.1 g) and T1 (1686.0 g) respectively. High mortality was recorded in T1 (7.1 %) while T2 had 1.4 %; none was recorded in T3, T4 and T5. Nutrient retention were significantly (P<0.05) different among the treatments. T5 had the highest dry matter (85.66 %) followed by T4 (85.08 %), T3 (77.56 %), T2 (73.40 %) and T1 (72.45 %) respectively. It was concluded that ATSM can be fed to broiler chicks at 30 ml/litre without any deleterious effect on the performance and nutrient retention of birds.