Sutha Wattanasit, Yuthana Siriwathananukul, and Arunporn Itharat

pp. 587 - 596

Abstract

A six-week experiment was conducted to study the effects of Andrographis paniculata (AP) and Psidium
guajava (PG) on the growth performance and carcass quality of broiler chickens. Six hundred one-day-old
(mixed sex) broiler chicks were used in ten dietary treatments, in a completely randomized design experiment. There were three replications in each treatment with 20 chicks per pen. The dietary treatments were 1)
basal diet (control), 2) basal diet + antibiotic, 3) basal diet + 0.2% AP, 4) basal diet + 0.4% AP, 5) basal diet
+ 0.2% PG, 6) basal diet + 0.4% PG, 7) basal diet + 0.2% AP + 0.2% PG, 8) basal diet + 0.2% AP + 0.4% PG,
9) basal diet + 0.4% AP + 0.2% PG and 10) basal diet + 0.4% AP + 0.4% PG From 0-3, 3-6 and 0-6 weeks, feed
intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and mortality rate were not significantly different (P>0.05)
among treatments. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in percentages of eviscerated carcass, breast
and leg among chicken fed different diets However, percentage of abdominal fat of male chicken fed basal diet
+ 0.2% AP + 0.2% PG were lower (P<0.05) than other treatments while female chickens fed the same diet were
not statistically different.