Abstract:
A trial of 240 day old “Cobb-500” commercial broiler chicks was carried out on littered
floor for a period of four weeks at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Poultry Farm,
Dhaka. The study was designed to investigate the efficacy of Yucca schidigera plant
extract (commercially available as “Bio-Ade super”) on ammonia gas emission from
litter of the broiler house, to evaluate the bird’s performance, carcass characteristics and
economic utility on broiler rearing that includes production cost, profit per bird (PPB)
and benefit cost ratio (BCR). The experimental birds were allocated randomly to 3
treatments and a control group with three replications having 20 broilers per replication.
Commercial starter and grower feed were used as basal diet which contained minimum
21% CP, 3000 ME Kcal/Kg and 19% CP, 3200 ME Kcal/Kg respectively. The chemical
yucca extract (YE) was mixed with drinking water to the birds at three concentration
levels: 1ml YE per 16 liters of drinking water (T
1
), 1ml YE per 20 liters of drinking water
(T
2
), 1ml YE per 24 liters of drinking water (T
3
XIII
) and
the group without YE
supplementation was control (T
0
). The result demonstrated that the ammonia level in
treated groups T
1
(11.87 ppm), T
2
(15.13 ppm) and T
3
(20.17 ppm) were significantly
(P<0.05) lower at the 4
th
week of rearing period than control group T
0
(25.87 ppm). A
significant difference (P<0.05) was noted on body weight, feed consumption, body
weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) value of the birds treated with YE.
The better FCR was significantly (P<0.05) observed in YE treated groups T
2
(1.46) and T
3
(1.47) than the control group T
0
(1.56). A statistically insignificant (P>0.05)
difference was noted on survivability of the broilers between the treatment groups and
control. Carcass percentage was significantly (P<0.05) higher in all treatment groups than
control group. Edible portion of birds was significantly (P<0.05) high in T
2
(73.64%) than
T
3
(72.86%), T
1
(72.07%)
and T
0
(67.14%). PPB and BCR were significantly higher
(P<0.05) in treatment groups than control group and among the treatment groups T
2
performed better than others. However, though Yucca schidigera plant naturally not
found in our country but it is commercially available with various trade names. The study
therefore recommends for conducting repeated field trial on commercial poultry farm to
fix up inclusion level of YE. Hence, it could be safely used in broiler rearing for higher
economical return without any adversity.
