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Effects of Cymbopogon citratus leaf and Zingiber officinale rhizome supplementation on growth performance, ileal morphology and lactic acid concentration in broilers

Thayalini, K.¹*, Shanmugavelu, S.¹, Saminathan, P.M.², Siti Masidayu, M.S.¹, Nor Idayusni, Y.¹, Zainuddin, H.¹, Nurul Akmal, C.A.¹ and Wong, H.K.¹

¹Strategic Livestock Research Centre, MARDI, P.O. Box 12301, 50774 Kuala Lumpur,
²Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Malaysia.

Malaysian J. Anim. Sci. 2011 14(1): 43-50

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The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effect of feeding Cymbopogon citratus leaf and Zingiber officinale rhizome on growth performance, digestibility, ileum morphology and ileal lactic acid concentration in broilers. A total of 108- day-old male Cobb broiler chicks were randomly assigned to three treatment groups with six replicates in each treatment. Dietary treatments were no supplementation (control) and supplementations with 2% dried Zingiber officinale rhizomes and 2% dried Cymbopogon citratus leaves, respectively. Growth performance, feed consumption, ileal lactic acid concentration and villus height and crypt depth of the ileum were measured at the end of study period of six weeks. The results obtained showed that the final body weight and body weight gain of the birds fed Zingiber officinale were similar to the corresponding figures of the birds fed the control diet. Overall, broilers fed with Cymbopogon citratus, showed poorer performance as compared to birds in the other two treatments. Digestibility and villus height: crypt depth ratio were not significantly different between treatments. It can be concluded that supplementing broiler feed with either Zingiber officinale or Cymbopogon citratus did not improve bird performance despite the higher lactic acid content observed with the bird fed the Zingiber officinale supplemented feed.