Effect of Synthetic Vitamin C Vis – A –Vis Herbal Vitamin C on Economy of Giriraja (Cross bred chick) Farming

The present study was carried out for six weeks, from November 21st, 2013 to January 03rd, 2014 at Government poultry farm, Khatipura, Jaipur. A total of 135 dayold Giriraja chicks were divided into three treatment groups of 45 chicks which were further subdivided into three equal replicates of 15 chicks each. The synthetic and herbal vitamin C were supplemented through drinking water at the rate of 2ml./l. for starter , 3ml. / l. for finisher. Ayucee and 250 mg/ l synthetic vitamin C various treatment groups and their designation used in this study are T1 control group, Vitamin C incorporated T2 and Ayucee incorporated T3 groups. Profit over control per chick revealed a loss of Rs. 23.28 and 21.42 in T2 and T3 groups, respectively. But Feed cost (Rs.) per unit live weight gain revealed that there was a percentage reduction of 10.34 and 06.59 in T2 and T3 groups, respectively, in comparison to control. INTRODUCTION During last 4-5 decades, broiler farming in the country has been growing rapidly because of its early assured return, rapid turnover and limited land requirements. Today it has transformed into a specialized complex competitive industry. The production of agricultural crop has been rising at the rate of 1.5 to 2.0 per cent per annum, while eggs and broilers have been rising at the rate of 5 and 12 per cent per annum, respectively. As a result, India became the world’s third ranked country in egg production and sixth largest broiler meat producer (FAOSTAT, USDA / FAS, 2011) with poultry meat production amounting to 3.4 million tonnes (ICRA rating, 2013). The respective annual per capita consumption of poultry egg and meat in India is only 55 and 2.8 kg. Which is much less than the W.H.O. / I.C.M.R. recommendation of 180 eggs and 11 kg? It indicates that eggs and broiler production in India is yet very low and has vast scope to grow. The low productivity is mainly due to poor nutrition, management and poor health coverage. The low productivity may be augmented through backyard poultry production, as in case of China whose major proportion of total egg and poultry meat produced is through backyard farming as compared to the organized sector. The need for development of varieties suitable for back yard production in India was visualized by poultry breeders during nineties and the research in this field has been made for production of the improved varieties suitable for rural areas under backyard environment. The importance of backyard poultry is well recognized by Government of India and special programmes are formulated for its promotion. Hence, efforts have been diverted into producing dual purpose native hybrids with improved production profiles. These hybrids are readily accepted by the rural farmers owing to their phenotypic appearance of the local birds. Hence, the introduction of different exotic crossbreds like Vanraja, Giriraja, Nadanam, Grampriya, Hitcari, Upcari etc. have generated new opportunities for poultry production in rural areas. These grow fast and produce more number of eggs, require low input (like feed, management , health care, housing etc.) and sustain different vagaries of climatic and environmental changes ( Singh et al.;2002 Khan and Sardar 2005; Siyag, 2010, Thiruvenkadan et al. 2010). Rajasthan, inspite of all infrastructures for poultry development, has not been able to keep pace with the neighboring states like Punjab and Haryana because of extreme climatic / environmental conditions which results into stress on the birds. Stress invariably causes high production of free radicals which are proven to be involved in the etiopathology of many diseases and loss of production. During stress severe depletion of vitamin C takes place (Daghir, 1996). To prevent this, antioxidants have been used to control the production of free radicals and prevent the deleterious effect of free radicals. Among the antioxidants, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is most popular and commonly used. Vitamin C exerts a stimulant action on the phagocytic activity of leukocytes, reticuloendothelial system and formation of antibodies. As the new catchword the world over is herbal therapy or herbal treatment, the application of the knowledge of herbs and their medicinal properties have made forays into the poultry industry in India. As herbal preparations pose no danger of side effects, residual effects and resistance development and they are personnel and environment friendly. Various herbal products of Vitamin C are commercially marketed with slight variation in composition having AmlaPowder(Emblicaofficinal) is as the major constituent e.g. Stresroak, Ayucee (Dabur Ayurvet Ltd.), POL-C (POLCHEM Nobel Agrovet Pvt. Ltd.) etc., alongwith other herbal sources of Vitamin C. Keeping in the view the above facts, the present study was undertaken to investigate the comparative effect of synthetic Vitamin C vis-à-vis herbal Vitamin C (Ayucee) on Giriraja(A cross of native with exotic breed) farming with the objective to study the comparative economics of different treatment groups. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Several stressors like heat, cold, rain, humidity, transportation, overcrowding, housing, adultrated feed, chemical, infection, vaccination, debeaking, deworming, production, pollution in air, water, litter, noise etc. may lead to stress in birds causing adverse production effects and economic losses Out of 75 reviews few most relevant previous studies are as follows – Ajakaiye et al. (2011) conducted an experiment to investigate the effects of vitamins C and E on live weight and egg quality profile of layer hens subjected in situ to heat stress. They concluded that both antioxidants offered protective effect against the thermally stressful hot-humid conditions. Siyag (2010) carried out an experiment on 240 day-old broilers fed ascorbic acid, stresroak and amla powder in all possible combinations. The average body weight, weight gain and FCR were significantly affected by antistress supplementation. Feed intake, mortality and carcass traits were found to be nonsignificant. The feed cost per Kg. live body weight gain was significantly reduced. Jadhav et al. (2013) conducted an experiment to determine the effects of synthetic vitamin C and herbal vitamin C (Ayucee) on production performance in layer chickens. Better growth and performance in terms of higher body weight, egg production,