Background: Tejpatta leaves are commonly used for culinary purpose. Due to antioxidant and antibacterial properties, it can also be used as phytobiotic feed additive in poultry nutrition. In relation to the aforementioned qualities, this trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of Tejpatta leaf powder on carcass traits and gut morphology of broilers for strengthening poultry production. Methods: 225 day-old chicks were arbitrarily assigned into five dietary treatment groups (T1–T5) using CRD, each consisting of 45 chicks with nearly equal average body weights. Each group of 45 chicks was further subdivided into three replicates (R1, R2, R3) having 15 chicks per replicate. The T1 group fed basal diet only, while T2, T3, T4 and T5 groups were fed Tejpatta leaf powder @ 0.25%, 0.75%, 1.25% and 1.75%, respectively, along with basal diet. Result: Non-significant (P<0.01) effect on carcass characteristics was found in broiler chickens due to dietary supplementation of Tejpatta leaf powder. Although, numerically highest dressing percentage, eviscerated percentage and giblet weight percentage was observed in T4 group. A statistically significant (P<0.01) effect on villus height, width and crypt depth was observed in birds of T4 group. Hence, it was summarized that supplementing broiler diet with Tejpatta leaf powder @ 1.25% could be advantageous for improving broiler chick’s gut morphology parameters while having no unfavorable effects on other traits of broilers

Broiler, Carcass traits, Gut morphology, Tejpatta leaf powder

Based on the aforementioned results, addition of 1.25% Tejpatta leaf powder as feed additive in the diet of broilers found to be advantageous and could be beneficial for improving gut morphology and thus enhancing overall growth performance of broilers. Nevertheless, the results of conducted trial are explicit and encouraging but further studies are warranted with more number of birds in order to ascertain the amount of Tejpatta leaf powder to be used as feed additive in broilers

Sachin Chaudhary, K.A. Shende, Harendra Singh Rajoriya, Sheetal Choudhary and Lokesh Kumar (2024). Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Tejpatta (Cinnamomum tamala) Leaf Powder as Feed Additive on Carcass traits and Gut morphology of Broilers. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 16(9): 65-69