Use of Plectranthus amboinicus in chickens and its effect on productive and economic parameters

Abstract

This research was carried out at the Santa Inés Farm of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Universidad Técnica de Machala, El Oro Province, Ecuador. The aim was to evaluate the effect of Plectranthus amboinicus, commonly called oreganon, on the productive and economic parameters of Cobb 500 broilers. For the well–being of the birds, the management established for open house systems in the area was used. A Completely randomized design was applied, where 6 treatments were used, each with 4 Experimental Units of 10 birds, for a total of 240 chickens evaluated. The treatments arrangement was: T1 or control which was based on a commercial type basal diet, while, to the balanced diets of treatments T2, T3, T4 and T5, the dehydrated–ground leaf of P. amboinicus was added at 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00%, respectively, in replacement of the Growth Promoter Antibiotic (GPA); the T6 or blank, which did not contain GPA and dehydrated P. amboinicus in the balanced mixture. The variables evaluated were live weight gain (LWG), feed consumption (FC), accumulated water consumption (AWC), feed conversion ratio (FCR), mortality (M), productive efficiency factor (PEF), kg of standing meat per m2, economic expenses and cost per kg of standing meat. For all the variables, an ANOVA was used, previous assumptions of normality and homogeneity, and to discriminate between the means, Tukey's honest significant difference (HSD) procedure was used, with a confidence level of 95%. All data were analyzed using the PROC GLM (General Linear Model) procedure of the SAS statistical package. The results showed that oreganón could works as a replacement alternative to the GPA in broilers, without harming the productive and economic parameters.