Abstract:
Strategies to increase production performance with desired carcass characters such as low fat and cholesterol are
among the priority research areas in poultry industry. Some phytogenic feed additives are known to have growth
promoting and/or fat lowering effects in broilers. Objective of this study was to determine the effects of dietary curry
leaf (Murraya Koengii) powder (CLP) on growth performances, performance, carcass fat and serum cholesterol levels
of broiler chicken. Giving a completely randomize design experiment with six replicates, 90 broiler in 30 pens received
a broiler finisher diet with either 0 (control), 0 .5 ,1 ,1 .5 or 2% CLP ad libitum from day 23-43. Serum cholesterol
contents were determined on day 42. On day 43, one randomly selected bird from each pen was killed and dissected to
determine the internal organ weights and, cloacal, abdominal, gizzard and total fat. Live weight on day 43, weight gain
and feed intake and the feed conversion ratio were not significantly affected by the dietary CLP levels. Gizzard fat
content was unaffected by the dietary CLP levels. Dietary CLP significantly increased the weight of the abdominal fat
pad. However, both cloacal and total fat contents of the control bird significantly increased at lower (0.5 and 1%)
dietary CLP levels and then reduced at higher (1.5 and 2% ) CLP levels. Organ weights and serum cholesterol contents
were not significantly changed due to dietary CLP. It was concluded that dietary CLP had no effect on growth
performance. (Upto 1% dietary CLP increases carcass fat contents). Further research are needed to ascertain
whether dietary CLP levels beyond 2% have fat reduction effects in broiler chicken.
