Evaluation of Phyllanthus niruri L. powder on growth performance, haematology, and intestinal morphology of broilers

The objective of this study was to evaluate the dietary supplementation of Phyllanthus niruri L. powder (meniran powder, MeP) on the productivity, haematology profiles, and intestinal morphology of broilers. A total of 200 female, one-day-old chickens were allocated to five treatments randomly, with four replications (10 birds per replicate): control, without antibiotic and MeP; T2, Zn-bacitracin 0.05%; T3, MeP 0.02%; T4, MeP 0.03%; and T5, MeP 0.05%. A completely randomized design was employed. The results showed that MeP supplementation at 0.02%, 0.03%, and 0.05% did not affect the body weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, haemoglobin, packed cell volume; and lymphocyte, red blood cell, heterophil, monocyte, eosinophil, and basophil counts, but at 0.03% and 0.05%, appeared to reduce white blood cells (WBCs) compared to those in the control and Zn-bacitracin groups. Microscopically, MeP supplementation in the diet increased the height and cellular growth of the mucosal villi of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum, but the villi appeared fragile as mucosal epithelial cell necrosis was noted in the taller villi. Thus, it is concluded that MeP did not affect broiler performance and haematology profiles, except that the number of WBCs at 0.03% and 0.05% was less than that in the control and Zn-bacitracin groups