Abstract
This study was conducted to determine the effect of inclusion of fever tea (Lippia javanica) leaf meal in broiler diets on growth performance, carcass characteristics and fatty acid (FA) profiles over a 42-day feeding period. One hundred and eighty, one-day-old, broiler chicks were randomly allocated to the following four treatments: 1) negative control (commercial broiler diet only [Negcontrol]); 2) positive control (commercial broiler diet + prophylactic antibiotics [Poscontrol]); 3) commercial broiler diet without prophylactic antibiotics + 5 g of L. javanica per kg of feed (Ljav5) and 4) commercial broiler diet without prophylactic antibiotics + 12 g of L. javanica per kg of feed (Ljav12). Body weights (BW) and feed intake (FI) were recorded weekly and used to calculate feed conversion ratio (FCR) and average daily weight gain (ADG). At the end of the trial (day 42), all chickens were slaughtered at a local commercial abattoir for assessment of carcass characteristics and FA profiles of meat. The broilers fed L. javanica had significantly (P P L. javanica inclusion had no effect on the breast weight, thigh weight, carcass weight, and dressing percentage of the broilers. Most of the n-3 FA were not affected by diets except for the docosapentaenoic, which was found to be higher (P P L. javanica fed broilers had higher (P L. javanica in broiler diets at 5 g/kg feed has positive influences on growth performance, carcass characteristics and FA profiles of broiler meat.