GROWTH PERFORMANCE, HAEMATOLOGICAL AND SERUM BIOCHEMICAL INDICES OF COCKEREL CHICKS FED GINGER (Zingiber officinale) ADDITIVE IN DIETS

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of graded levels (0, 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5%) of ginger in the diets of cockerel chicks on growth performance and haematological and serum biochemical parameters. Two hundred and sixty four-two week old cockerel chicks used for the trial were randomly allotted to four treatments (T 1 T 2, T 3, T 4 ) at 66 chicks per treatment, each treatment was replicated six times (11 birds per replicate). The diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous (2400kcal/kg M.E and 21% crude protein). The trial lasted for seven weeks. Results elicited that ginger supplementation at 0, 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5 % had no adverse effect on feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, haemoglobin count, white blood cell count and  lymphocyte count. Packed cell volume (28.0 ± 3.0%), Red blood cell count (2.2 ± 0.4 (x 10 9 /1) and urea (4.5 ± 1.7 mg dl -1 ) were significantly varied (P < 0.05); while the levels of creatinine increased significantly beyond 1.5% ginger inclusion level. Inclusion of ginger at 1.5 – 3.0% levels had no adverse effects on the growth performance and blood constituents of cockerel chicks. The use of ginger for cockerel diet is therefore advocated.