| Livestock Research for Rural Development 31 (6) 2019 | Guide for preparation of papers | LRRD Newsletter | Citation of this paper |
A study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of feeding neem (Azadirachta indica) and pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) seed as natural feed additive for broiler chicks. Four treatments were compared with 192 chicks allocated at random to 3 replicates (12 pens each with 18 chicks). The treatments were: No additive (CTL), 1% neem seed powder (NS), 1% pumpkin seed powder (PS) and 1% of 50:50 mixture of both additives (NS-PS). The neem seed contained 14.3% CP and the pumpkin seed 7.86%; ether extract values were 14.7 and 19.1 %. Addition to the diet of neem seed, pumpkin seed and their combination improved feed intake, live weight gain, feed conversion and carcass yield.
Keywords: antibiotics, medicinal value, natural products
Feed additives are chemical and biological substances, which are added to poultry feed with the aim to improve the growth of broilers, improve the utilization of feed and in this way realize better production and financial results (Windisch et al 2008; Ihsan 2017). Currently, there is controversy on use of growth promoters for animals destined for meat production, as overuse of any antibiotic over a period of time may lead to the local bacterial populations becoming resistant to the antibiotic and long residual properties. Phytogenic and herbal products have received increased attention in recent years because they have been accepted by consumers as natural additives (Toghyani et al 2010). The use of medicinal plants is gradually gaining importance as natural products have a medicinal value against various diseases and have no residue in tissues and eggs. One of widely researched plants is Azadirachta indica, commonly known as neem, and contains various active substances such as azadiractin, azadirachtin, nimbin, nimbindin, quercetin and others which have antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anthelmintic and antiprotozoal properties beside immuno-stimulatory effects (Jawad et al 2013; Brahmachari 2004; Ahsan et al 1999). Similarly pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) seed is one of the alternatives that have the potential to serve as protein source in the poultry industry because of its high crude protein content (Wafar et al 2017). Authors indicated pumpkin seed applications for the treatment of parasitic diseases and hypercholesterolemia; besides its use as hypoglycemia agent (Kerise et al 2008). The pumpkin seed contains a substance called cucurbitin that treats worms and other parasites by paralyzing (Bauri et al 2015). However, there is limited information available about the integral utilization of Neem (Azadirachta indica) and pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) seed combination in broiler feeding. Therefore, the current experiment was conducted to determine the effect of feeding neem (Azadirachta indica) and pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) seed as natural feed additive on feed intake, growth and carcass characteristics of broilers.
The experiment was conducted in the Poultry Farm at Haramaya University, Ethiopia. The starter and finisher commercial diets were purchased from Debre Zeit Alema Koudijs farm. Dietary ingredients were maize grain, wheat bran, soybean meal, noug cake, salt, vitamin premix, limestone and dicalcium phosphate. Dried neem seed was collected from Diredawa town and pumpkin seed from Harar, Ethiopia. The neem and pumpkin seeds (Photos 1 and 2) were ground (5 mm sieve) in a hammer mill and used as additives to commercial broiler diets
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| Photo 1. Seeds from pumpkin | Photo 2. Seeds from the Neem tree |
Four treatments were compared with 192 chicks allocated at random to 3 replicates (12 pens each with 18 chicks). The treatments were: No additive (CTL), 1% neem seed powder (NS), 1% pumpkin seed powder (PS) and 1% of 50:50 mixture of both additives (NS-PS). The chicks (Cobb500) were vaccinated against Newcastle Disease and Gumboro and were fed the diets for 42 days. Representative samples of Neem and pumpkin seed powder were subjected to proximal analysis according to AOAC (1995). At the end of the experimental period, 4 chicks from each replicate were randomly selected and slaughtered after about 12 hours of feed starvation.
The experiment data were analyzed by ANOVA) using the General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS (2009) version 9.2. The model used for data analysis was:
Yij = µ + Ti + eij
Where:
Yij = the response variable
µ = Overall mean
Ti = Treatments effect
eij = Random error term
The noteworthy feature of the analysis of the two additives was the relatively high content of ethe-extract with low crude protein and crude fiber values (Table 1). Literature reports show wide variation in these attributes: 14-28% for CP of neem seed (Gowda and Sastry 2000) and 7.45-27% in pumpkin seed (Glew et al 2006); with crude fiber 11.4-16.8% in need seed (Gowda and Sastry (2000) and 8.62-13.8% in pumpkin seed (Glew et al (2006).
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Table 1. Proximate analysis
of feed additives and commercial broiler diets (as prescribed by the manufacturer) (% in DM except for DM which is on air-dry basis) |
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| DM | Ash | EE | CF | CP | |
| NS | 89.1 | 4.2 | 14.7 | 11.6 | 14.3 |
| PS | 95.1 | 3.6 | 19. 1 | 9.5 | 7.9 |
| Starter | 90 | 4.4 | 6.5 | 5.5 | 22 |
| Finisher | 90 | 4.5 | 8 | 5.5 | 18 |
Addition of neem seed, pumpkin seed and their combination to the diet improved feed intake, live weight gain and feed conversion (Table 2; Figures 1, 2 and 3).
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Table 2. Effect of feeding powder of neem and pumpkin seeds on feed
intake, growth rate and feed conversion of broilers |
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| Treatments | ||||||
| CTL | NS | PS | NS-PS | SEM | p | |
| Feed intake, g/d | 170b | 183a | 187a | 190a | 2.73 | 0.007 |
| Weight gain, g/d | 49.2b | 54.8a | 55.4a | 55.9a | 0.86 | 0.0002 |
| Feed conversion# | 2.22a | 2.18b | 2.11b | 2.03c | 0.02 | 0.0003 |
| ab Means without common superscript differ at p<0.05 | ||||||
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| Figure 1. Effect of additives (neem and pumpkin seed) on feed intake of broilers | Figure 2. Effect of additives (neem and pumpkin seed) on growth rate of broilers |
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| Figure 3. Effect of additives (neem and pumpkin seed) on feed conversion of broilers |
Our findings are supported by reports of: (i) positive effects on growth rate of broilers by neem seed and pumpkin seed (Wafar et al 2017). Better feed conversion was reported by (Imran et al (2014) from adding neem seed to the diet and by when pumpin seed was added to the feed.
| Table 3. Effect of adding neem seed powder, pumpkin seed powder and their
combination on carcass dressing percent and on selected cuts and organs (as % of dressed carcass weight) |
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| Treatments | ||||||
| CTL | NS | PS | NS-PS | SEM | p | |
| Dressing percent | 77.0c | 80.5b | 81.3ab | 82.9a | 0.68 | 0.0002 |
| As % of dressed carcass | ||||||
| Breast | 25.8 | 25.8 | 26.7 | 27.83 | 0.30 | 0.01 |
| Thigh | 8.78 | 9.77 | 9.04 | 9.32 | 0.15 | 0.067 |
| Abdominal fat | 2.35 | 1.7 | 1.82 | 1.74 | 0.12 | 0.16 |
| Heart | 0.51 | 0.52 | 0. 50 | 0.53 | 0.01 | 0.62 |
| Liver | 1.63 | 1.65 | 1.64 | 1.70 | 0.02 | 0.73 |
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Table 4.
Effect of adding neem seed powder,
pumpkin seed powder and their combination on non-edible offal components of broilers |
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| (g) | Treatments | |||||
| CTL | NS | PS | NS-PS | SEM | p | |
| Esophagus | 4.5 | 5.9 | 5.6 | 5.85 | 0.2 | 0.0197 |
| Crop | 4.9b | 5.3ab | 5.71 | 5.54 | 0.12 | 0.0385 |
| Proventriculus | 8.33 | 9.9 | 10.5 | 9.25 | 0.37 | 0.1883 |
| Small intestine | 49.8 | 49.83 | 52.17 | 52.1 | 0.46 | 0.0648 |
| Large intestine | 3.33 | 3.38 | 4.37 | 3.60 | 0.25 | 0.4896 |
| Cecum | 11.21 | 11.4 | 11.5 | 11.6 | 0.08 | 0.4599 |
The authors are grateful to Haramaya University for funding the research.
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Received 1 April 2019; Accepted 4 May 2019; Published 4 June 2019