Effect of black cumin and ginger supplementation on production performance, nutrient utilization, haemato-biochemcial and immune parameters in white leghorn layers

The effect of ginger and black cumin was evaluated in terms of production performance and nutrient utilization as well as blood-biochemical and immune profile of White Leghorn laying hens. Two hundred and seventy hens were randomly allotted to nine dietary treatments with three replications while adopting 32 factorial design. A feeding trial of 84 days was conducted to evaluate production performance and at the end of experiment six birds from each treatment group were subjected to metabolism trial to study nutrient utilization. Metabolizability of proximate principals except NFE was improved significantly on black cumin supplementation and on ginger supplementation only NFE metabolizability wasimproved. Nitrogen retention due to ginger and nitrogen and calcium retention due to black cumin were improved significantly (P<0.01). Both the herbs have non-significant effect on phosphorus retention. Dietary inclusion of ginger significantly reduced feed intake (P<0.05) and egg production (P<0.01), whereas black cumin has no effect on feed intake but increased the egg production (P<0.01) at 1% level. At the end of experiment, Two birds from each replication were randomly selected for blood-biochemical and one bird for immune characteristics analysis. Supplementation of both the herbs in diet significantly reduced serum cholesterol and triglycerides. Hematological indices, serum enzymes and spleen, bursa and thymus weight index were within normal physiological range and have not been influenced by dietary treatments. On observing egg production among different treatmet grouops it can be sated that highest egg production was in treatment group with 1% level of black cumin. Due to main effect of ginger, there was increase in metabolizability of crude protein and nitrogen retention but decline in egg production were observed. Further due to main effect of black cumin, highest metabolizability of dry matter, crude protein, ether extract and crude fiber, highest nitrogen intake, nitrogen retention, calcium inatke and retention with decline in calcium excretion and increase in the egg production were observed at 1 per cent level. So supplementation of black cumin at 1% level might be promising for profitablepoultry production.