Effect of ginger, garlic and negro pepper on gut microbes, gut histomorphometry and pathological assessment of selected organs of broiler chickens

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the gut responses of broiler chickens fed Xylopia, ginger and garlic and their effect in controlling population of gut microbes of broiler chickens. A total of 240 Ross 308-dayold chicks were used. There were four treatments which were replicated four times. Each replicate had 15 birds. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design (CRD). Starter and finisher Control (T1) diets without Xylopia, ginger and garlic were formulated. T2 –T4 had 10g each of Xylopia, ginger and garlic respectively in 1000g of feed. The diets and water were offered to the birds ad libitum. At the end of the 8th week, two birds per replicate with representative weight were randomly selected, slaughtered and gastrointestinal tracts were removed. Five centimeter (5cm) cut of the jejunum of 3 randomly selected chickens per treatment were submerged inside 10% formalin and slide preparation was done. Also, the digesta from three selected sections of the gut were kept in sterile bottle, labelled and sent to reputable microbiology laboratory for microbial analysis. Data collected were analysed using SPSS version 21 and significant means were separated using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test of the same statistical package. There was reduction in the population of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter aerogens, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus in the birds fed the phtyo-additives compared to the control. The result obtained for gut morphometry of this experiment showed that garlic performed better by recording higher gut morphometry than other treatments as the gut length and gut weight of the experimental birds increased when fed garlic additives. The result of histomophometric characteristics shows significant different (P<0.05) across the treatments and garlic fed chickens and control had similar villi height (4401.67μ and 4171.62μ respectively) gut weight was similar across the four treatment groups except jejunum and ilium with highest value under the garlic fed chickens. The intestine histology revealed normal histo-archietecture, compact mucosa crypt and increased surface area in diets 2 and 4. Similarly, the liver histology revealed a fine histoachitecture throughout the treatment groups. This study concluded that the inclusion of Negro pepper, garlic and ginger in broilers diet improved gut ecosystem, intestine histomophometry without fear of toxicity.