Effect of dietary nano zinc oxide on growth performance and carcass characterstics of broiler chicken

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of nano zinc oxide (nano ZnO) on the performance and slaughter variables of commercial broiler chicken from 0 to 42 days of age. Straight run ‘Cobb 400’ day-old broiler chicks (240) were randomly distributed into six treatment groups which were sub-divided into eight replicates containing five chicks in each and fed with T1 (control), T2 (nano ZnO @ 0.1 ppm/litre) and T3 (nano ZnO @ 0.2 ppm/litre), T4 (nano ZnO @ 0.4 ppm/litre) T5 (nano ZnO @ 0.6 ppm/litre) and T6 (nano ZnO @0.8 ppm/litre) diets. The results revealed that body weight gains were significantly influenced by the graded levels of nano ZnO at 42 days of age and the weight gain increased with decrease in level of nano ZnO 0.1 and 0.2 ppm/litre compared with 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 ppm/litre. However, the feed intake and FCR was not influenced by nano ZnO supplementation. All the dietary supplements did not exert any significant effect on various carcass parameters, except liver and breast yield. The liver weight was increased with increased level of nano ZnO but the breast yield was higher in nano ZnO at 0.6ppm/litre followed by nano ZnO 0.2 and 0.4 ppm/litre at the age of 42 days. The mortality rate was within the limits. It can be concluded that supplementation of nano ZnO @ 0.1 and 0.2 ppm (in drinking water) can be used for improving performance and breast yield of broiler chicken.