Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Black Cumin (Nigella sativa) Seeds on the Performance of Commercial Broiler Chickens

Abstract

This experiment was performed to determine the impact of black cumin (Nigella sativa) seeds as a natural growth promoter on the growth performance and feed conversion efficiency of commercial broiler chickens. One hundred and forty four day-old broiler chicks (Ven Cobb) were randomly assigned into 6 treatments, each treatment comprised of 4 replicates with a total of 24 chicks per treatment. The experiment was carried out for a duration of 42 days. The dietary treatments included a control diet (T1) and T2 supplemented with 0.01% Antibiotic growth promoter in the basal diet. The remaining experimental diets T3, T4, T5 and T6 were supplemented with black cumin seeds powder at 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0% of the basal diet, respectively. The final mean body weight and body weight gain of birds fed with T5 diet was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the birds fed with the T2 diet. However, T3, T4 and T6 were at par with T5 group, while T1 was at par with T2 group. Basal diet supplemented with antibiotic growth promoter (T2) resulted in the lowest body weight and body weight gain at the end of experiment. There was no significant difference in feed consumption among the birds fed with different dietary treatments. The mean feed conversion ratio (FCR) of birds fed with T2 diet was significantly (p<0.05) higher than all other treatments, indicating least efficient FCR, while most improved FCR was recorded in T5 group. The highest livability was observed in T4 and T5 as compared to T1, T2, T3 and T6 groups. The highest return over feed cost (ROFC) was obtained in the birds fed with T3 (0.5 % black cumin seeds) diet followed by T1, T4, T5, T2 and T6 diet, respectively.