The effect of the inclusion of Urtica dioica leaves meal in diets on growth performances and carcass characteristics of broiler

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the inclusion of Urtica dioica leaves meal in diets on growth performances and carcass characteristics of broiler chicken. The study was conducted from May to June 2014 in the area of Chemini (Algeria). In a completely randomized design, a total of 100 one-day-old broilers (industrial strain) were divided into 2 groups and 2 repetitions with 25 chickens each. Group 1 was the control group fed a standard commercial diet based on corn and soybean purchased on the local market, whereas the birds in group 2 were fed the nettle diet (control diet with addition of 2% of nettle). The animals were housed inside in experimental pens and fed ad libitum.
The results showed that nettle inclusion significantly promotes growth performance of broilers at 42 days of age (1644.8 ± 45.5 vs. 1565.1 ± 45.5g; P<0.05). The broilers fed the nettle diet had higher thigh yield (26.0 ± 0.3 vs. 25.2 ± 0.3%; P<0.05) but lower abdominal fat yield (4.39 ± 0.16 vs. 3.90 ± 0.16%; P<0.05). No significant effect of the diet was observed for carcass yield (around 71.1%) and breast percentage (around 32.40%). The overall mortality was not significantly different (P>0.05) for any of the dietary regimens (around 20%). Feed conversion ratio of the two groups were very close (around 2.17).
This experiment showed that dietary inclusion of Urtica dioica has positive effects on growth performance and carcass quality of broilers.