Effects of Dietary Olive Leaf Powder and L-Carnitine, Alone or in Combination, on Growth Performance and Feed Efficiency of Broiler Chickens

• Enji Nozad Abdullah Mahmoud

  Author

This study investigated the effect of adding dried leaf powder from a local olive tree (OLP) and
L-carnitine were evaluated as dietary supplements for broiler chickens in this study. The experiment was
carried out in the broiler chicken farm of the faculty of Medicinal and Industrial Plants at Kirkuk
University from 9/8 to 2023/10/12 . A total of 270 broiler chicks were divided into six treatments and
three replicates of 15 birds. The treatments were a basal diet without additives (T1), 1 g OLP/kg diet (T2),
2 g OLP/kg diet (T3), 500 mg L-carnitine/kg diet (T4), 1 g OLP + 500 mg L-carnitine/kg (T5), and 2 g
OLP + 500 mg L-carnitine/kg (T6). The parameters measured were feed intake, live body weight, body
weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR). All data were presented as mean±SE and means of the
treatments compared by Duncan's multiple range test at P≤0.05. As a result, the T6 treatment (high-OLP)
consistently resulted in the highest performance with regards to later period body weights and gains and
the best cumulative FCR. Final body weight was 1929.83±8.83 g in T6 compared with a provisionally
corrected control value of 1642.44±6.69 g; cumulative gain was 1889.33±8.17 versus 1599.61±5.48 g,
respectively. Cumulative FCR was lowest in T6 1.047±0.006 compared with T1 1.266±0.003, while
cumulative feed intake was slightly lower 1979.83±3.51 vs. 2026.00±2.13 g. T4 and T5 in addition gave
an improvement in cumulative gain and FCR when compared with the control. The results of this study
suggest that the best growth and feed-use efficiency were obtained when 2 g OLP/kg diet and 500 mg Lcarnitine/
kg diet was used. But substantial inherent variations between the body weight of the two
experimental groups, and the lack of raw replicates data, restrict causal interpretation and independent
reanalysis of the treatment by supplement interaction.

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