Effects of Antibiotic Growth Promoter Free Production on The performance, Blood Properties, and Humoral Immune Response of Broiler Chicken

The present study assessed the effect of replacing antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) with an AGP-free program on broiler chicken performance and economic returns. Therefore, these studies were conducted in two separate experiments. The first experiment was started at the BLRI research farm to determine the use of antibiotics in the broiler chicken’s feed and water. 600-day-old chicks (Lohmann) were casually distributed to 3 treatments, with 10 replicates of 20 chicks. Broiler's usual diet throughout the rearing period was as follows: control (received no AGP), antibiotics (received 0.1% antibiotics as growth promoters), and AGP-free (received multivitamins, acidifiers, calcium, zinc, liver tonic, and saline). In the second experiment, a training program was arranged for the farmers on safe broiler production before the onset of the experiment. The farmers were then categorized into Group 1 (farmers produced their broilers following existing practices and using antibiotics as growth promoters) and Group 2 (farmers reared their broilers using the AGP-free program). The results demonstrated that the antibiotic and AGP-free group showed higher body weight and weight gain than the control group. A significant difference was investigated in the feed intake of the three treatment clusters. Based on the performance of broiler chicken production, the application of the AGP-free program saves production costs 7.50 Tk/birds than that of the conventional system using antibiotics. The findings show that it could be possible to commercially raise broiler chickens using an AGP-free package in Bangladesh.