Efficiency of copper Sulphate versus Flavomycin as a growth promoter in broiler chickens

An experimental study was carried over a period of 42 days using 160 day-old commercial broiler chicks (Ven Cobb) to study the effect of copper and flavomycin as feed additives on growth promotion in broiler chicken. The birds were divided into four groups with four replicates of ten chicks in each replicate. The treatment (T1) was control with standard broiler ration and Cu as CuSO4 at 100 ppm, 200 ppm and flavomycin at 10 ppm were supplemented in the basal diet to form treatment 2 (T2), treatment 3 (T3) and treatment 4 (T4) respectively. The chemical composition of T1, T2, T3 and T4 rations contained 15.43, 106.49, 212.54 and 18.69 ppm of Cu in broiler starter and 12.67, 101.13, 202.72 and 20.20 ppm of Cu in broiler finisher, respectively. The results of the present study revealed that the supplementation of Cu as CuSO4 (100 and 200 ppm) or flavomycin (10 ppm) showed no significant difference among the treatment groups with regard to the feed consumption, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio up to six weeks of age. It was concluded that dietary supplementation of broiler chicken with Cu up to 200 ppm and flavomycin at 10 ppm did not have any adverse effect on protein efficiency ratio (PER), energy efficiency ratio (EER) and production efficiency factor (PEF) in broiler chicken.