Effect of Dietary Supplementation with Spirulina platensis and Moringa oleifera as Alternatives to Antibiotics on Growth Performance, Carcass Traits and Cost-Effectiveness in Broiler Chickens

Authors

  • Md Mufazzal Hossain Department of Animal Nutrition, Genetics and Breeding, Faculty of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Md Imran Hossain Department of Animal Nutrition, Genetics and Breeding, Faculty of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Abu Naser Department of Animal Nutrition, Genetics and Breeding, Faculty of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Md Anwarul Haque Beg Department of Poultry Science, Faculty of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Md Abdur Rahman Regional Director, Pathway Intermediates, Dhaka, Bangladesh

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3329/ralf.v12i2.84220

Keywords:

Broiler, Gizzard, Moringa, Spirulina, Spleen

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine the comparative and combined efficacy of Moringa oleifera dry leaf powder and Spirulina platensis powder as natural feed additives on productive performance and cost-effectiveness in broilers, in comparison to an antibiotic-based diet. Accordingly, a total of 120-day-old Lohmann Meat broiler chicks were randomly assigned to four treatment groups using a completely randomized design, with three replicates, each containing 10 chicks. Among the four treatment groups, one group was fed a basal diet supplemented with antibiotics and served as the control, while the other groups were fed the same diet supplemented with 2% Moringa leaf powder, 1% Spirulina powder, and 1% Moringa leaf powder with 0.5% Spirulina powder. The results of the experiment indicated that the combined addition of Moringa and Spirulina powder improved the growth performance of broilers. However, no significant differences (P > 0.05) were found in final live weight, feed intake, body weight gain, and feed conversion ratio among the treatment groups. The synergistic effect of these natural feed additives significantly (P < 0.05) increased the weights of breasts, drumsticks, wings, livers, intestines, hearts, and dressing percentage compared to other treatments. However, no significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed in breast, back, neck, gizzard, or spleen weight among any of the groups. Overall, the present study suggests that the combined effect of Moringa and Spirulina positively influenced broiler performance and cost-effectiveness. Therefore, it can be concluded that these two natural feed supplements can be utilized as alternatives to antibiotics.

Res. Agric. Livest. Fish. Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2025: 219-230

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
0
PDF
0

Downloads

Published

2025-09-16

How to Cite

Hossain, M. M., Hossain, M. I., Naser, A., Beg, M. A. H., & Rahman, M. A. (2025). Effect of Dietary Supplementation with Spirulina platensis and Moringa oleifera as Alternatives to Antibiotics on Growth Performance, Carcass Traits and Cost-Effectiveness in Broiler Chickens. Research in Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries, 12(2), 219–230. https://doi.org/10.3329/ralf.v12i2.84220

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2025)

Section

Livestock

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Md Mufazzal Hossain, Md Imran Hossain, Abu Naser, Md Anwarul Haque Beg, Md Abdur Rahman

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons
All RALF articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License. Readers can copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work provided the original work and source is appropriately cited.

Copyright
Submission of a manuscript implies that authors have met the requirements of the editorial policy and publication ethics. Authors retain the copyright of their articles published in the journal. However, authors agree that their articles remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License.