Effects of Ginger and Garlic Extract on Performance and Interleukin (IL-12) Gene Expression of Broiler Chickens Experimentally Challenged with Salmonella typhimurium

Background: Salmonella typhimurium is an avian pathogen that can cause severe intestinal disease, especially in younger chickens and adverse economic losses in the poultry industry. It affects the major organs of the birds; Newly hatched/younger birds are more affected by salmonellosis than older birds due to an underdeveloped organ. As a result of this problem, solutions are sought by researchers to reduce the problems of microorganisms’ resistance to antibiotics by replacing them with some phytogenic growth promoters that are more accessible, less expensive, have a low risk of toxicity, low health hazard on the consumers and are environmentally friendly. This experiment was conducted during the late rainy period of September and October 2023; to evaluate the effects of ginger and garlic extracts as a substitute to ciprofloxacin on the growth performance and the immune modulation of interleukin (IL-12) gene expression in broiler chickens, experimentally challenged with Salmonella typhimurium infection. Methods: A total of 240 day-old-chicks were assigned to five treatments in a completely randomized design, with the following dosage levels: T1 (Negative Control, no ciprofloxacin, Ginger and garlic) T2 (positive control - ciprofloxacin without Ginger nor garlic); T3 contained 10 ml of ginger extract; T4 contained 10ml of garlic extract; T5 contained 10 ml of both ginger and garlic extracts. The birds were orally challenged with 10 ml/liter of water containing Salmonella typhimurium infection before commencing the various treatments already enunciated above. Three weeks post-infection, sample organs were harvested and analyzed for IL-12 mRNA expressions. Result: Results obtained showed that IL-12 was upregulated in the liver in all the treatments when compared to the control treatment, whereas only (T5), showed an upregulated IL-12 mRNA expression in the caecum. The results obtained from the growth parameters showed that ginger and garlic extract had no detrimental effect on the weekly growth performance parameters. Nevertheless, birds fed with a mixture of 10 ml of ginger and garlic extracts performed best in terms of body weight gain followed by the control treatment that contained ciprofloxacin; while T2 performed the least when compared to other treatment groups.