Effect of different levels of cinnamon powder and Flavophospholipol antibiotic on performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of different levels of cinnamon powder (CNP) and with antibiotic (flavophospholipol) on performance and carcass characteristics in broiler chicks for 42 days using a completely randomized design. A total of 200 one-day-old male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly assigned to 5 treatments, 4 replicates and 10 chicks per replicate. The experimental treatments were the basal diet (BD), BD + 0.3% CNP, BD + 0.4% CNP, BD + 0.5% CNP and BD + flavophospholipol. Feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and carcass characteristics were measured. In grower period, there were significant differences among treatments for feed intake and broilers fed with two levels of 0.3 and 0.4% CNP had higher feed intake as compared to the antibiotic and control fed birds (P<0.05). No significant differences were observed among the treatments for body weight gain and feed conversion ratio (P>0.05). The abdominal fat pad weight of broilers fed the highest CNP level was lower than that of the birds fed the antibiotic and control diets (p< 0.05). This study showed that inclusion of CNP in broiler diets had not remarkable effects on performance, but adding 0.5% CNP significantly decreased the abdominal fat pad and hence can be a good factor for meat quality improvement in broiler chicks.