Effect of different combinations of probiotic, chicory root powder and coriander seed powder on growth, carcass, immunity, serum parameters and economics of broilers

The trial was undertaken in a completely randomized design to to evaluate the synergistic effect of probiotic (Pro), chicory root powder (CRP) and coriander seed powder (CSP) on the performance of broiler chicken. A total of 240 day-old broiler chicks were randomly allotted to six dietary treatments with 8 replicates of 5 birds in each. Treatment groups included T1 as control, i.e. basal diet (BD) without any growth promoter and T2 - BD + antibiotic (BMD @ 500 gm/ton). In the remaining experimental diets, T3 - pro (@ 10 gm/100 kg) + CRP (@ 1.0%), T4 - pro (@ 10 gm/100 kg) + CSP (@ 1.5%), T5 - CRP (@ 1.0%) + CSP (@ 1.5%) and T6 - pro (@ 10 gm/100 kg) + CRP (@ 1.0%) + CSP (@ 1.5%). The results revealed that supplementation of pro + CRP significantly increased the body weight gain during prestarter, starter and finisher phase and improved the feed conversion ratio during finisher phase compared to other treatment groups. Supplementation of different dietary groups did not show any significant effect on feed intake and various slaughter parameters of broilers. Whereas, the humoral immune response to ND vaccine and immune organ weights were significantly higher in all the test diets (T3 to T6) compared to control and antibiotic groups. Supplementation of probiotic with chicory combination group significantly reduced the serum total cholesterol and recorded higher returns over feed cost compared to other treatment groups. It can be concluded that combination of probiotic (10 g) with chicory root powder (1.0%) proved more effective than combinations of other additives.