Effect of supplementation of ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) root powder and synbiotic on growth performance, carcass characteristics and cost economics in broilers

Vooha, P., Anil Kumar, C., Susmita, T. and Kavitha, P. 2024. Effect of supplementation of ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) root powder and synbiotic on growth performance, carcass characteristics and cost economics in broilers. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 59(3): 291–298. The study evaluated the effects of supplementing broiler diets with varying levels of ashwagandha root powder and synbiotic on growth performance, carcass traits, and cost efficiency. One hundred and eighty day old-chicks were randomly divided into six different treatment groups with three replicates of ten chicks each and were fed maize-soya based pre-starter, starter, and finisher broiler diets. The six treatment groups consisted of a negative control (T1) without antibiotic, positive control group (T2) with antibiotic, group (T3) with ashwagandha root powder (ARP) 10g/ kg, group (T4) with synbiotic (S) 0.5 g/ kg, group (T5) with ARP 10 g/ kg and S 0.5 g/ kg (0.05%), group (T6) with ARP 5 g/ kg + S 0.5 g/ kg (0.05%) in basal feed. Supplementing ashwagandha root powder in combination with synbiotic and synbiotic alone in basal diet of broiler resulted significant (p=0.01) improvements in body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), performance index (PI), and protein efficiency ratio (PER). However, overall feed intake decreased in treatment groups T3 and T4 compared to control group T1 Supplementation of ARP (10 g/kg feed) + 0.05% synbiotic significantly (p=0.05) increased carcass characteristics parameters like carcass yield, ready-to-cook yield, breast meat yield and dressing percentage. However, no significance (p=0.05) were observed in other parameters including weight of drumstick, breast meat giblet and relative organ weights. It was concluded that supplementing broiler diets with ashwagandha root powder and synbiotic led to reduced mortality and cost savings in feed/kg gain compared to the control group. This suggests that incorporating ashwagandha root powder at 10 g/kg feed alone or in combination with synbiotic at 0.05% in feed, could be a viable alternative to antibiotic growth promoters, optimizing feed cost and enhancing production performance in broilers.