Effect of regimes of dietary oxytetracycline on the performance of broiler chicken

Abstract

Oxytetracycline antibiotic powder in feed at 0.05g/kg was administered to broiler chicks as growth promoter using different regimes. The birds (45) were divided into 5 groups with 3 replicates. The control group received Oxytetracycline free feed daily throughout the 8 weeks of the experiment while groups 2, 3,4 and 5 birds received the antibiotic feed daily for 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks respectively.The results indicated that Oxytetracycline in feed at 0.05g/kg did not produce any significant effect on weight gain, feed and water intake and feed conversion ratio in the treated birds (P>0.05). However, feeding the antibiotic for 2 or 4 weeks improved the growth rate which was best when the drug was fed daily for 4 weeks. From these results, we concluded that without dietary Oxytetracycline, broiler chicken can perform well with regards to most of the parameters stated above.

Key words: Dietary Oxytetracycline, Broiler chickens, Nigeria