Effect of herbal immuneo modulator on growth performance and survivability in Giriraja birds

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted at Department of Poultry Science, Veterinary College, Bangalore during January, 2015. An experiment was planned to evaluate the effects of herbal immunomodulator powder and liquid form (with and without vaccine) comparing with levamisole powder (with and without vaccine) in Giriraja birds for 8 weeks duration to evaluate on growth performance. In a completely randomised design, 525 day old Giriraja chicks were assigned to seven treatments with each treatment group consisting of five replicates with 15 chicks each. The results of the present study identified no significant difference in body weight of chicks fed with diets supplemented with herbal immunomodulator in the form of powder and liquid (with and without vaccine). Whereas there is significant difference observed during seventh week of the experiment in treatment (T4) supplemented with herbal immunomodulator powder without vaccine. The results of the present study found that there is influence of herbal immunomodulator (powder and liquid) in feed consumption. During second, fourth, sixth and seventh week of experimental period, without vaccine group consumed higher feed and during first and the eighth week of experiment higher feed consumption was recorded in (T3) supplemented with levamisole with vaccine. The mean feed conversion ratio was significantly influenced by supplementation of herbal immunomodulator in powder form without vaccine (T4). There was significant difference in FCR during 5th, 6th and 7th week of the experimental period and non-significant difference during 3rd and 8th week of the experimental period. Non-significant difference was observed in the per cent livability of birds in all treatment groups.