A biological trial was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding garlic (Allium sativum) powder as prebiotic on the performance of broiler chicken. A total of 144 numbers of day old broiler chicks with uniform body weight were randomly divided into four groups viz, T0 (Standard basal diet as control), T1 (basal diet + 0.5 percent garlic powder), T2 (basal diet + 1.0 percent garlic powder) and T3 (basal diet + 1.5 percent garlic powder) comprising 36 chicks in each group. The final body weight was significantly (P≤0.05) higher in T2 group (2175.00g) followed by T3 (2008.3g), T1 (1986.11g) and T0 (1904.86g). In respect of overall FCR, the T2 group showed the best FCR value of 1.67 followed by T3 (1.74), T0 (1.78) and T1 (1.80). The study revealed that there was increased body weight, improved FCR, highest BPEI and cent percent livability and higher gross profit per bird offered with 1.0 percent garlic powder in feed.
Key words: Broiler, Garlic Powder, Body Weight, FCR, Gross Profit
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Dr. Joga, it is a relevant study that considers garlic as an alternative to the use of antibiotics in poultry nutrition. I believe that the greater potential of the use of garlic in poultry diets would be more associated with the presence of its two components with antimicrobial action, allicin and garlic, present in its composition, than that of inulin. Therefore, it becomes impracticable to attribute its positive effects on bird performance to only one of these components. Another detail to note is that data regression analysis should be used instead of the means test.