Effects of Graded Levels of Ginger (Zingiber officinale) Meal as Feed Additive on Growth Performance Characteristics of Broiler Chicks

A 56 day experiment was conducted using ninety eight day-old Anak broiler chicks to investigate the growth performance characteristics of broiler fed graded levels of Ginger meal as feed additive. The birds were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments (T1-T4) in a completely Randomized Design (CRD). Each treatment consisted of 24 birds per treatment with 8 birds per replicate. The ginger was incorporated at graded levels of 0g, 2g, 4g and 6g per kg feed in T1 (control), T2, T3 and T4 respectively. Performance parameters such as feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio were collected and recorded weekly. Data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), there were significant differences (Pless than 0.05) in feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio and the best results were recorded in T4 (6g per kg of feed) which had the highest overall performance while T1 (control) had the lowest performance.