Growth Performance and Cost Benefit of Finisher Broilers Fed Diets Supplemented with Graded Levels of Aloe vera Leaf Meal

Background and Objective: The need to adopt natural herbal plants as feed additives in poultry production has gained attention among animal nutritionists and productionists in recent years. Herbal plants have little or no side effects, unlike synthetic additives. The experiment was conducted at the poultry site of Federal College of Agriculture, Ishiagu in Ebonyi State to determine the growth performance and cost-benefit analysis of broilers at the finisher stage. Materials and Methods: Ninety-six (96) four weeks old broiler birds of Ross 308 strain were used for the experimental work. The birds were randomly selected into four treatment groups of twenty four, each replicated thrice with eight birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Feed and water were given to the bird’s ad libitum throughout the experiment, which lasted for 21 days. Results: The proximate analysis showed that Aloe vera leaf meal had about 93.58% dry matter, 6.42% moisture, 10.42% crude protein, 6.45% crude fiber, 2.03% ether extract, 18.77% ash and 55.91% carbohydrate. Data obtained for growth performance revealed that birds in treatment 2 (0.50% avp) were superior in terms of final body weight, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio with values of 2694.10 and 1973.40 g. Results for cost-benefit analysis showed that birds in treatment 2 (0.50% avp) had better benefit/profit of 1415.86 when compared with that of control with a value of 1363.25. Conclusion: Thus, it can be concluded that the inclusion of Aloe vera powder in the diet of finisher broiler birds up to the level of 1.50% is possible, with the best performance in treatment 2 (0.50% avp).