Comparative Efficacy of Homoeopathic and Antibiotic Growth Promoters on Performance of Commercial Broiler Chicken

Abstract

The application of antibiotics as growth promoter in poultry has been banned, hence alternative growth promoters are required to be used. One of them is Homoeopathic remedies. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Homoeopathic and Antibiotic growth promoters on growth performance and feed efficiency of commercial broiler chicken. A total of 144 straight-run day-old commercial broiler chicks were randomly distributed to three treatments (T1, T2, T3). Each treatment consisted of eight replicates and in each replicate, six chicks were there, leading to 48 chicks per treatment. Birds in T1 (Control), received basal diet, while birds of T2 group were provided with Antibiotic Growth Promoters (AGP, Avilamycin, 10 g/100 kg) through feed and T3 group provided with Homoeopathic Growth Promoter (HGP, 2 mL/L) through drinking water. Up to 6 weeks of age, the body weight in birds of control group was significantly (p<0.05) higher as compared to AGP and HGP, which were at par with each other. The body weight gain of control group during the whole experimental period was significantly (p<0.05) higher than AGP, and that of HGP was intermediate between Control group and AGP. At the end of experiment, the feed consumption in Control group was significantly (p<0.05) higher compared to AGP and HGP, which were at par with each other. The FCRs of control and HGP were at par, and significantly (p<0.05) improved as compared to that of AGP. Livability was found better in control groupand HGP than AGP. The higher ROFC was obtained in the birds fed with control diet followed by AGP and HGP groups. The beneficial effect on performance was found better in the birds of control group. From the results, it can be concluded that there was no beneficial effect of Antibiotic as well as Homeopathic growth promoters on performance of commercial broiler chicken as compared to control.