Detoxification of dietary lead by garlic powder in broiler chicks

Abstract EN

: A 2×4 factorial arrangement was performed including two levels of garlic powder (0 and 0.5%) and four levels of lead acetate (0, 300, 600 and 900 mg/kg diet).

One hundred twenty unsexed 1-week-old Ross broiler chicks were randomly distributed to 8 dietary treatment groups (15 birds each).

Each treatment was subdivided to 3 replicates and each replicate contained 5 chicks.

Growth performance and carcass traits were studied.

Obtained results showed that final live body weight, daily body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and survival rate were significantly (p<0.01) improved while, daily feed intake was significantly (p<0.01) decreased with dietary garlic supplementation.

Lead acetate significantly (p< 0.01) impaired live body weight, body weight gain and feed conversion.

The interaction between lead levels and garlic supplementation showed that dietary garlic supplementation reversed these deleterious effects of lead intoxication on growth performance traits.

Giblets percentage was significantly decreased with dietary supplementation by garlic and lead acetate at different levels, while, carcass and dressing were not affected significantly.

These results suggested that garlic supplementation at 0.5% in broiler chicks diets can promotes growth performance traits and reverse the inhibitory effects of lead intoxication on such traits.