Vol. 8, Issue 5, Part G (2023)

Author(s): Pawan Acharya, Lokesh Gupta, Surendra Singh, Dashrath Singh Chundawat, Hitesh Muwal and Gaurav Singh

Abstract: The study was conducted to investigate the “Effect of feeding Azolla Leaf Powder (Azolla pinnata) on the performance of Kadaknath chicken (Gallus domesticus).” One hundred fifty Kadaknath chicks (four weeks old) were used in a completely randomized design in 5 treatments with 3 replications, each consisting of 10 chicks. The treatments were T₁: control, T₂: control group supplemented with Azolla leaf powder @ 2.5%, T₃: control group supplemented with Azolla leaf powder @ 5%, T₄: control group supplemented with Azolla leaf powder @ 7.5% and T₅: control group supplemented with Azolla leaf powder @ 10%. A metabolic trial was conducted at 16^th week of age with 3 days adaptation and 3 days collection period to study the digestibility of nutrients and balance of nitrogen. Significantly highest DM, CP, CF, EE, NFE intake and digestibility coefficient of DM and NFE was found in group of birds fed diets containing 5% ALP as compared to other treatment groups. Non-significant effect was found in digestibility coefficient of CP, CF and EE among different treatment groups.