Herbal effects of ginger in turkey poults

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of ginger supplementation on growth performance and serum biochemistry of turkey poults. A total of 96 two-weeks old American bronze turkey poults were randomly allocated into four dietary treatments. 24 poults per treatment replicated thrice with 8 turkey poults per replicate in a completely randomized design (CRD). The turkey poults were given a basal diet supplemented with 0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6% ginger powder during the 42days of the experiment. Growth performance and serum biochemistry were determined. The final liveweight, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio improved in treatment groups especially among turkey poults fed diet containing 0.6% of ginger powder. The supplementation of ginger powder at 0.6% reduced cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein, ALT, AST values and increased the high density lipoprotein value. Supplementing turkey poults with ginger enhanced the growth performance and reduced the cholesterol profiles. It was obvious that birds on treatment 4 (0.6%) ginger inclusion increased final liveweight and improved the feed conversion ratio (FCR) of turkey poults. It is therefore concluded and recommended that the dietary inclusion of ginger powder meal at 0.6% levels in turkey poults should be adopted by animal nutritionist and farmers.

Keywords: ginger, turkey poults, growth performance, serum biochemistry