Data supporting a pilot study on the effect of dietary inclusion of Bobgunnia madagascariensis pods on broiler growth performance

Data set for a pilot study which evaluated the effect of inclusion of Bobgunna madagascariensis pods in poultry feed on growth performance in broiler chickens. Summary of study: There is growing interest in plant-based poultry feed additives. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of dietary inclusion<em> Bobgunnia madagascariensis</em> pods on broiler growth perfomance. The experiment employed a completely randomized design where a total of 160 one-day-old Ross broiler chicks were randomly assigned to four treatment groups. Treatment 1 (negative control) was fed a basal diet with no additives, whilst Treatment 2 (positive control) was fed a basal diet containing oxytetracycline (50mg/kg). Two experimental groups, Treatment 3 and Treatment 4, were fed basal diets containing 5g/kg phytogenic feed additive and 10g/kg phytogenic feed additive, respectively. Body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were measured every week over six weeks to monitor growth performance. Significant differences were observed in BWG with Treatment 2 outperforming the other treatments in weeks 5 and 6 (p&lt;0.05). Treatment 4 demonstrated significant improvements in BWG by Week 4. Birds in Treatment 4 had significantly better BWG than the negative control and Treatment 3 in weeks 5 and 6 (p&lt;0.05 Treatment 2 and Treatment 4 had significantly lower FCR in week 6 compared to the negative control (p&lt;0.05). The findings suggest that including <em>B. madagascariensis</em> pods in poultry feed improves the growth performance of broilers.