The Effect of Dietary Ginger Root Powder (Zingiber officinale) on Broiler Chicks Performance, Carcass Characteristic and Serum Constituents

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of ginger root powder as natural feed additives on growth performance and blood chemistry of broiler chicks. One hundred and sixty unsexed one day-old (Hubbard) broiler chicks were divided randomly into four group, each represented a treatment (40 birds/treatment) with 4 replicates in a completely randomized design. The experimental basal rations were formulated to meet requirement for essential nutrients for broiler chicks according to NRC (1994) recommendation. Four graded levels of ginger root powder 0%, 1%, 1.5% and 2% were used. The experiment lasted for six weeks. Blood chemistry and carcass characteristics were measured. Results showed Significant decrease (P < 0.05) in feed intake (2170, 2178) and weight gain (996.5, 938.2) for birds fed 1.5% and 2% ginger root powder respectively, and no significant differences were observed in feed conversion ratio among all dietary treatments. Treatments had significant decreased (P < 0.05) in pre-slaughter weight for birds fed 2% ginger root powder (1151.9g), and lower dressing percentage was recorded for control (71.1%) and 2% ginger root powder diet (71.5%). Moreover, dietary treatments had no effect (P > 0.05) on Hb, PCV, RBcs, MCV, MCH and MCHC percentage. However, there was significant (P < 0.05) decrease in MCH (16.48pg) for birds fed 2% ginger root powder diet. No significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed in serum triglyceride, creatinine and inorganic phosphorus, meanwhile significant (P < 0.05) decreased were obtained on serum glucose (144.5mg/dl), total protein (1.75g/dl), cholesterol (184.25mg/dl) and calcium (6.68mg/dl) for birds received 2% ginger root powder. Inclusion of ginger root powder at level 2% in the diet had lowering effect on cholesterol levels, but it had adverse effect on growth performance.