“EFFECT OF TURMERIC AND CINNAMON ON CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER CHICKENS

The experiment was conducted to investigate the “effect of turmeric and cinnamon on carcass characteristics of broiler chickens”. Turmeric powder was procured from the Department of Crop Production and Soil Science, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State. While, cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) powder was purchased from the Department of Veterinary medicine, University of Ilorin, Kwara state. The birds were fed ad-libitum on a commercial chick crumble diet containing 22% Crude Protein and 3000kcal/kg Metabolizable Energy from day-old to 3rd week of the experiment followed by finisher mash diet containing 18% Crude Protein and 3150kcal/kg Metabolizable Energy from 4th week to the 6th week. Number of experimental diets = 5, Experimental layout are T1: 0.00g cinnamon (CP) and turmeric powder (TP)/ 4 litres of water, T2: 0.50g(CP) + 0.5g(TP)/ 4litres of water, T3: 0.10g(CP) + 0.10g(TP)/ 4litres of water, T4: 0.15g(CP) + 0.15g(TP)/ 4litres of water, T5: 0.20g(CP) + 0.20g(TP)/4liters of water. All the data generated was subjected to one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using (SAS, 2009). The variations in means were separated using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test of the same statistical package. The findings indicate that while most carcass parameters remained largely unaffected by the dietary inclusion of turmeric and cinnamon, notable improvements were observed in specific metrics, such as Slaughter Weight (SW) and Dressed Weight (DW).