Journal of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine

A feeding trial of 56 days was carried out on broiler chickens to evaluate the growth-enhancing effects of one millilitre (ml) of ethanolic extract of hog plum (EHP) and vitamin A per litre of water when they are fed aflatoxin B1 (AF) per kilogram of feed. Two hundred and eighty day old arbor acre broiler chicks were purchased and allowed to acclimatise for 2 weeks, the birds were then randomly allotted into seven treatments (T). At the starter phase, each T received: T1: 0 ml of Vit A + 0 ml of EHP + 0 µg/kg of AF, T2: 35 µg/kg of AF, T3: 1 ml of EHP, T 4: 1 ml of EHP + 35 µg/kg of AF, T5: 35 µg/kg of AF, T6: 1 ml of Vit A, T7: 1 ml of Vit A + 35 µg/kg of AF. At the finisher phase, each treatment received: T1: 0 ml of EHP + 0 µg/kg of AF, T2: 1 ml of EHP, T3: 35 µg/kg of AF, T4: 0 ml EHP + 0 µg/kg of AF, T5: 1 ml of Vit A, T6: 35 µg/kg of AF, T7: 0 ml Vit A + 0 µg/kg of AF. Feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, carcass characteristics, and lymphoid organs percentage weights were recorded and subjected to analysis of variance. The least significant difference was used to assess the significant difference among groups. The result reveals that the final weights of the treatment groups were statistically comparable with the control at the starter (757.89 to 821.16 g) and best in T6: 35µg/kg of AF (2074.00 g) at the finisher phase. The FCR values indicate that treatment 6: 1 ml of Vit A (1.79) had the best feed conversion at the starter phase while treatments 4: 0 ml EHP + 0 µg/kg of AF, T6: 35 µg/kg of AF and T7: 0 ml Vit A + 0 µg/kg of AF had the best FCR at the finisher phase. The study concluded that administration of Vitamin A before the introduction of aflatoxin might mitigate the adverse effect of aflatoxin contamination on growth performance, thereby improving the growth and healthy gut of broiler chickens.