Dietary Cinnamaldehyde and Eugenol Enhance Growth Performance in Broiler Chickens: A Natural Alternative to Antibiotic Growth Promoters

Finding alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) has been a challenge for the broiler chicken industry due to increasing restrictions on their use. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of three inclusion levels (3%, 6%, 9% per kg of feed) of cinnamaldehyde and eugenol on the growth performance of broiler chickens as potential substitute to AGPs. A total of four hundred eighty Cobb-500-day-old chicks were raised to the age of 35 days in a Completely Randomized Design with eight dietary treatments each replicated six times with 10 birds per each replicate. Treatments based on added Growth promoters (GP) to the basal diet: negative control-NC (without GP), positive control-PC (AGP - Zinc bacitracin - 50ppm), cinnamaldehyde at 3% (T3), 6% (T4), 9% (T5) or eugenol at 3% (T6), 6% (T7), 9% (T8).The feed intake (FI) and live body weights were measured separately for each replicate at weekly intervals. The cumulative body weight gain feed conversion ratio (FCR) and Performance Efficiency Factor (PEF) were calculated for total growing period. One-way Analysis of Variance procedure was used to compare the performances of the treatments. Birds fed PC diet increased (p<0.05) live weight (2056±22.23 g), weight gain (2009±22.07 g) and improved FI (2887.9±38.4 g) compared to the other treatments. With the exception of the group receiving the highest level of cinnamaldehyde (T5), all other groups supplemented with cinnamaldehyde and eugenol exhibited increased (p < 0.05) live weight and weight gain compared to the NC group. The lowest (p<0.05) FCR was recorded in 3% cinnamaldehyde fed birds (T3). The highest (p<0.05) PEF was also recorded in 3% cinnamaldehyde fed birds and that was similar (p>0.05) to PC. Conclusively, present study demonstrated that broiler chickens fed diets containing 3% and 6% cinnamaldehyde and 3%, 6% and 9% of eugenol, improved the growth performances compared to birds fed without growth promoters.