DOI: 10.36347/sjavs.2016.v03i03.011

Pages: 219-226

A floor pen experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of Moringa oleifera and a commercial herbal preparation Zigbir on the organ size, ileal digestibility and intestinal microflora of broiler chicken. Total of 308, day-old, male broiler chicks of Indian River strain were randomly allotted to seven experimental diets namely negative control, 0.0125% flavomycin as positive control, 0.1% Moringa leaf powder, 0.05% Moringa leaf powder, 0.035% Zigbir (commercial herbal product), 0.1% Moringa fruit powder and 0.05% Moringa fruit powder, in a complete randomized design. Each treatment contained 44 birds with four replicates of 11 birds each. The results revealed that the Moringa feed additives and Zigbir increased the relative gut weight and duodenum length in the chickens on day 21 and the antibiotics significantly reduced the relative liver weight in the broiler chickens on day 42. During early stage of growth in floor pens, antibiotic and Zigbir increase both ileal and caecal lactic acid bacteria counts in broiler chickens while antibiotics, Zigbir and Moringa feed additives reduce the ileal and caecal coliform counts. During starter diet period, the herbal dietary supplements significantly improved the apparent ileal dry matter digestibility in the broiler chickens.