PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS, BIOCHEMICAL AND HAEMATOLOGICAL PROFILES OF BROILER CHICKENS FED SYNTHETIC AND HERBAL METHIONINE SUPPLEMENTED DIETS

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the performance, haematological and plasma measurements of broiler chickens fed herbal methionine (HM) and synthetic methionine (SM). The herbal methionine was supplied by lntas Pharmaceutical Limited, India. The HM and SM were added to standard diets at 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 kg per ton of finished feeds and fed to 168 Arbor Acre broiler chickens. After 7 days pre-experimental period, the birds were randomly allocated to seven isonitrogenous and isocaloric dietary treatments in a Completely Randomized experimental design with factorial arrangement of treatments. Each treatment was replicated 4 times with six birds per replicate, the feeding trial lasted for 56 days. The final body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of the birds were determined on weekly bases. At the end of the feeding trial, 2 birds per replicate, representing 8 birds per treatment were sacrificed for the determination of carcass quality traits, haematological and plasma biochemical profiles. Broilers chickens fed on diets supplemented with HM had poor feed intake (P ≤ 0.05), lower weight gain (P ≤ 0.05) and lower final live weight (P ≤ 0.05) than those fed diets supplemented with SM. Feed conversion efficiency was not affected (P ≥ 0.05) by the dietary methionine source, likewise total protein, albumin, globulin, plasma alanine transferase (ALT) and aspartate transferase (AST) (P ≥ 0.05). All haematological variables determined were not affected (P ≥ 0.05) by HM supplementation. Relative organ weights of broiler chickens were not significantly altered (P ≥ 0.05) except for gizzard (P ≤ 0.05) which tend to reduce with HM supplementation. Under the conditions of this study, it was concluded that herbal methionine was not an effective substitute for synthetic Dl- methionine for optimum broiler chicken performance, despite the fact that no detrimental effect on health of the birds were observed.