Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Immune Response and Meat Quality of Broiler Chickens Fed Muntingia Calabura Leaf Extract

This experiment was carried out to determine the effect of feeding Muntingia calabura leaf extract on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, immune response and meat quality of broiler chickens. 500 1-day old broiler chicks (Cobb 500) were randomly distributed into five treatments of five replicates consisting of ten birds each in a completely randomized design model. Birds in treatment one (control) was fed basal diet alone which is adequate in all nutrients according to the recommendation of broilers while treatment two, three, four and five were fed same diet with Muntingia calabura leaf extract at 0.3 mL, 0.6 mL, 0.9 mL and 1.2 mL per liter of water correspondingly. The duration of the experiment was 56 days and birds had unrestricted access to feed and fresh water. Body weight gain was higher in birds fed treatment four (2555.3 g) and five (2646.1 g), intermediate in treatment two (2346.6 g) and three (2365.1 g) and lower in treatment one (1948.8 g) (P<0.05). Total feed intake and dressing percentage was higher among birds fed Muntingia calabura leaf extract relative to the control (P<0.05). Conversely, mortality of 2.5 % was recorded in control followed by treatment two with 1.00 % none was recorded in the other treatment (P<0.05). Results on the breast muscle revealed that saturated and unsaturated fatty acid was 29.80 %, 41.83 % in control, treatment two (28.11 %, 55.94 %), three (27.19 %, 56.97 %), four (23.15 %, 73.69 %) and five (22.90 %, 73.74 %) in each case (P<0.05). Immunoglobulin A, G and M values were influenced (P<0.05) by the treatments. In conclusion, feeding Muntingia calabura leaf extract up to 1.2 mL/liter of water had no negative effect on the performance and health status of birds.