No abstract

The current study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of Yucca extract (YE) on ammonia gas emission from litter, evaluate the production performance, carcass characteristics and economic utility in broiler rearing. A trial of 240 day-old commercial broiler chicks was carried out on littered floor for a period of 28 days. The birds were allocated randomly to 3 treatments and a control group with three replications (20 birds/ replication). Feeding management and rearing condition were same for all the groups, as per standard. YE was mixed with drinking water as treatment as follows: 1ml YE per 16 liters of drinking water (T 1), 1ml YE per 20 liters of drinking water (T 2), 1ml YE per 24 liters of drinking water (T 3) and no YE in drinking water i.e control group (T 0). Ammonia level of Yucca treated groups were significantly (P<0.05) lower at the 4 th week of rearing period than control group. A significant difference (P<0.05) was noted on body weight, feed consumption, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio value of the birds treated with YE. Carcass percentage and edible portion were significantly (P<0.05) greater in all treatment groups than control group. Profit per bird and Benefit cost ratio were also higher (P<0.05) in treatment groups than control group. Among the treatments, the performance of T 2 group was better than other groups. This study concluded that application of YE (1ml/ 20 liters of drinking water) has an important role to reduce ammonia gas emission from broiler litter and increase the birds performance.

No abstract