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Abstract
The use of antibiotic growth promoters in poultry production has been restricted due to concerns regarding antimicrobial resistance and residues in the food products. This has prompted the exploration of natural alternatives to improve the gut health and growth performance in broiler chickens. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with ginger and garlic powders, individually or in combination, on the intestinal characteristics, gut microflora and growth performance of broilers reared under semi-arid conditions. A total of 160 day-old broiler chicks were randomly allocated to four dietary treatments: control (basal diet), ginger-supplemented diet (1% of feed), garlic-supplemented diet (1% of feed), and a combination of ginger (0.5% of feed) and garlic (0.5% of feed). The data were collected on villus height, crypt depth, villus-to-crypt ratio, goblet cell count, intestinal pH, gut microflora and growth parameters including body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR). The results demonstrated significant improvements (p < 0.05) in the intestinal morphology among supplemented groups compared to control, with the combination group showing the highest villus height (980 ± 30 µm), lowest crypt depth (160 ± 9 µm) and best villus-to-crypt ratio (6.1 ± 0.3). The broilers receiving combined supplementation also exhibited superior growth performance with the highest body weight gain (2250 ± 42 g) and the lowest FCR (1.69 ± 0.02). There observed a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the total viable counts of E. coli and C. perfringens and a significant (p<0.05) increase in the Lactobacillus spp. were observed in the broilers with dietary supplementation of ginger + garlic combination. These findings suggest that dietary supplementation with a combination of ginger and garlic enhances intestinal health and growth performance, offering an effective natural alternative to antibiotic growth promoters for an enhanced broiler production system.
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