Effects of graded dose dietary supplementation of Piper betle leaf meal and Persicaria odorata leaf meal on growth performance, apparent ileal digestibility, and gut morphology in broilers

Due to antimicrobial resistance and the public health hazard of antibiotic growth promoters, there is a grave need to find potential alternatives for sustainable poultry production. Piper betle (PB) and Persicaria odorata (PO) are herbs, which have been reported for antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. The present study aimed to estimate the influence of different dose supplementation of Piper betle leaf meal (PBLM) and Persicaria odorata leaf meal (POLM) on growth performance, ileal digestibility and gut morphology of broilers chickens. A total of 210 one day-old broiler chicks were randomly grouped into 7 treatments, and each treatment group has 3 replicates (n = 10) with a total number of 30 chicks. The treatments included T1 control (basal diet (BD) with no supplementation), T2 (BD + 2 g/kg PBLM); T3 (BD + 4 g/kg PBLM), T4 (BD + 8 g/kg PBLM), T5 (BD + 2 g/kg POLM), T6 (BD + 4 g/kg POLM), T7 (BD + 8 g/kg POLM). Growth performance, gut morphology and ileal digestibility were measured. Except for T4 (8 g/kg PBLM), graded dose inclusion of PBLM and POLM increased (P