Effect of Ginger, Nettle and Mixtures of Both on Performance, Blood parameters and carass characteristics of Broilers

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of ginger and nettle powders and their mixture in comparison with antibiotic growth promoter in a completely randomized design with 5 treatments, 4 replicates and 8 chicks per replicate in commercial broilers. The experimental treatments were:1) control (with no additive); 2) basal diet with 0.04% tetracycline antibiotic growth promoter (50% mixed in feed); 3, 4 and 5): basal diet with 1% ginger powder, 1% nettle powder and 1% of mixed ginger powder and nettle powder, respectively. The results showed that the highest weekly weight gain in the period of 21-35 days was related to the treatment group of 0.04% antibiotic growth promoter followed by the treatment group containing 1% nettle powder, which was statistically significant when compared with other dietary treatments (P< 0.05). In conjunction with the increased feed consumption in the period of 1-7 days of age, treatment groups with 1% ginger powder showed the highest value with statistically significant difference among other experimental groups (P< 0.05). In the sixth week of trial, treatment containing 1% ginger powder resulted in significant reduction in blood cholesterol levels compared to other experimental groups (P< 0.05). With regard to carcass characteristics, feed conversion ratio and other blood parameters no significant changes was noticed among all treatments in different week intervals (P>0.05). According to the archived results, ginger powder and nettle powder and their mixture can be considered as a relatively suitable alternative to antibiotic growth promoters for improvement of broiler performance.