The Growth Performance and Lipid Profile of Broilers Fed Diet With or Without Antibiotic and Green Tea (Camellia Sinensis) Extract

This experiment was conducted to determine the optimum level of green tea extract (GTE) in diets without antibiotics and to evaluate its effect on broiler performances. A total of 100 Cob broiler chicks were kept for a period of 5 weeks. Dietary treatments used in this experiment were antibiotic free group (basal diet as a control), GTE 0.5% (basal + GTE 0.5%), GTE 1% (basal + GTE 1%) and GTE 2% (basal + GTE 2%) and antibiotic added group (basal + 0.05% oxytetracycline). GTE supplemented group showed significantly higher body weight and better feed conversion ratio (FCR) than other treatments (P < 0.05) where highest live weight (2034 g/bird) was recorded in broilers group provided with 0.5% GTE. The best FCR (1.58) was observed in the group supplemented with 0.5% GTE. The obtained results also revealed significant (P < 0.05) difference among treatments in the lipid profile parameters (total cholesterol, HDL and triglyceride except LDL). Broilers treated with 0.5% GTE showed lowest total cholesterol (115.0 mg/dl), triglyceride (116.3 mg/dl) and highest HDL (30.75 mg/dl). In conclusion, GTE can be added in the diet @ 0.5% for better growth performances of broiler as an alternative to antibiotic without any negative effect on lipid profile. Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.8(1): 157-163, April 2021