Vol. 7, Issue 3 (2018)

Author(s):
K Prashanth Kumar, V Ravinder Reddy and M Gnana Prakash

Abstract:
An experiment was conducted to elucidate heat stress alleviating effect of supplementation of Ashwagandha extract (WS) on growth performance, carcass traits, stress parameters and intestinal E. coli counts in commercial broilers reared during hot summer. Day old broiler chicks (n=160) were randomly allocated to 4 groups consisting of 8 replicates with 5 chicks each from 1 to 42 day of age. The four groups were 1. Positive control (PC) (Basal diet +Vit-E 70mg/kg + Se 0.15 mg/kg), 2. Negative control (NC)-basal diet without antioxidant, 3. WS50 (Basal diet + 50 mg WS extract/kg diet) and 4. WS100 (Basal diet + 100mg WS extract/kg diet). Body weight gain, feed efficiency, feed intake, intestinal E. coli counts were affected (P<0.05) by supplementation of WS. Carcass traits were not affected with WS in broiler diets. Lipid peroxidation (LP) in serum decreased (P<0.05), while activities of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), glutathione reductase (GSH-Rx) in serum increased (P<0.05) in WS fed groups. In liver and spleen activities of GSH-Px, GSH-Rx and SOD were not affected, while LP decreased (P<0.05) in WS supplemented groups. Present study results indicated that WS supplementation enhanced performance, antioxidant status and decreased intestinal E. coli counts. However, supplementation of WS did not influence carcass traits in present study.