Effect of Dietary Addition of Amla (Emblica officinalis) on Performance and HSP70 Gene Expression in Coloured Broiler Chicken during Extreme Summer

This study was designed to access performance of coloured broiler chickens (n= 112) fed diets with or without addition of Amla fruit powder during extreme summer (May-June, 38°C to 43°C). There were four dietary treatments with 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3% Amla fruit dried powder respectively in broiler starting (0-3 wk) and finishing (3-6 wk) diets. Feed intake was lower (P<0.001) in broilers fed diets containing Amla fruit powder at any level in comparison to control. FCR during all phases improved (P<0.001) in treatment group compared to control and other dietary treatments. The feather loss, giblet, liver, gizzard, eviscerated yield and dressed yield differed significantly among various treatments. The yields of breast (P<0.01) and drum stick (P<0.001) increased at 0.1% or 0.2% level with reduction of cut of part-back yield (P<0.001). Cell-mediated immune response (CMI) improved (P<0.01) on addition of Emblica fruit powder. Lower levels of reduced glutathione (P<0.01) was estimated in treatment group and the values were lowest at 0.1% level. The m-RNA expression of HSP-70 in liver and bursa remain comparable while in spleen it was significantly down-regulated (P<0.001) on dietary addition of amla at 0.3% level (in comparison to control group) by a mean factor of 0.506. Use of Amla fruit powder 0.2% in diets was beneficial to improve FCR, CMI response while 0.3% was beneficial to improve HSP-70 expression during extreme summer.