Honeyweed (Leonurus sibiricus) and Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) supplemented diet improve growth performance, lipid profile and hematological values of broiler chicks

The study was conducted to investigate the combined effects of honeyweed (HW) and buckwheat (BW) supplemented diets on the growth, feed intake, serum lipid profile and blood parameters in broiler chicks. One hundred fifty (150) day old chicks (Cobb-500) were divided into five groups viz . T1 (Commercial control, CC), T2 (FF+10% BW), T3 (FF+10% BW +5% (w/v) HW powder), T4 (FF+10% BW +10% (w/v) HW powder), T5 (FF+10% BW +15% (w/v) HW powder) in complete randomized design with five (5) replications, each of which contain six (6) birds. The CC feed and the FF with HW and BW supplemented diet fed on broiler for 30 days. At the end of the study, the body weight gain, FCR and mortality rate were calculated. It was found that T3 (FF+10% BW +5% (w/v) HW powder) diet significantly (p <0.05) showed the good FCR, mortality rate and body weight gain. Interestingly, T3 decreased the serum cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), increased high density lipoprotein (HDL) and improves blood parameters significantly (p < 0.05). Our results suggested that this newly formulated feed T3 (FF+10% BW +5% (w/v) HW powder) could be considered as an alternative natural feed additive to hazardous synthetic antibiotics.