Effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) and garlic (Allium sativum) on productive performance and hematological parameters of broiler

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of ginger and garlic on the productive performance, carcass characteristics and hematological parameters of broilers. Ginger and garlic were provided alone and combination of both through the diet and drinking water in the form of powder and infusion respectively. A total of 200 one-day-old Cobb-500 straight-run broiler chicks were randomly allocated to five experimental treatments with four replications of 10 chicks per replicate (n=40). Treatments were: T0 (control group without test ingredients), T1 and T2 : (birds received 15 g kg-1 of ginger and garlic in powder form in feed) T3 and T4 : (birds received 15 g kg-1 of ginger and garlic combination in powder form in feed and in water based infusion at 50 ml L-1 of drinking water respectively). Blood samples were collected on 21 and 35th day post feeding from 5 birds per replication for hematological parameters analysis. At the end of trial, 20 birds from each treatment (5 birds per replicate) were slaughtered for the determination of carcass characteristics. Ginger and garlic had significantly improved (p<0.05) on body weight (BW), feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) on 14, 21, 28, 35th d of experiment respectively. The usage of the test ingredients had a significant effect (p<0.05) on carcass weight, abdominal fat and dressing percentage except proximate components of breast and thigh muscle. A better performance was observed when chicks were fed in powder form than those fed the water based infusion. Significant variations (p<0.05) existed among the treatments in mean hematological parameters total erythrocyte count (TEC), hemoglobin (Hb), total leukocyte count (TLC), packed cell volume (PCV), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) respectively. However, there was no significant effect of ginger and garlic on MCV at 21 d and heterophil, basophil at 35 d. Substantial positive affect was observed on broilers performance when ginger and garlic were fed in powder form without any adverse effect and boosted their traits monitored as well as general well-being.