Effects of dietary supplementation with herbal formulations on the growth performance of pullets from 1 to 19 weeks of age
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of supplementing 3% different herbal formulations (HFs) into a basal diet on the growth performance of VGA crossbred Egyptian pullets. A completely randomized design was employed using 600 birds allocated to four treatment groups (150 birds per group, with three replicates). The control group (CON) received the basal diet only, whereas the experimental groups (HF1, HF2, and HF3) were fed the basal diet supplemented with 3% HF1, HF2, and HF3, respectively. All herbal formulations contained 50% dried gac (Momordica cochinchinensis) fruit residue combined with garlic, artichoke, turmeric, and cinnamon powders at different proportions. Herbal supplementation increased the survival rate, with the highest value observed in the HF2 group (99.33%) compared with the control group (97.33%). It also significantly improved cumulative, absolute, and relative growth performance, particularly in the HF2 group, which achieved a final body weight of 1,616.0 g/bird at 19 weeks of age, exceeding that of the control group by 62.1 g/bird (P<0,05). Moreover, herbal supplementation reduced feed conversion per kilogram of body weight gain, with the HF2 group exhibiting the greatest efficiency (4.58 vs. 4.91 kg feed/kg body weight gain in the control group; P<0,05). Growth performance and feed utilization efficiency were consistently superior in the HF2 and HF3 groups compared with the HF1 and control groups. These findings demonstrate that supplementation with an optimized herbal formulation, particularly HF2, effectively enhances growth performance, improves bird viability, and increases feed utilization efficiency in VGA crossbred Egyptian pullets during the rearing period, thereby providing a natural, safe, and sustainable nutritional strategy for poultry production.
