UNAIR NEWS – Students of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FKH) Universitas Airlangga in his research have found that carrot ( Daucus carota L ) can be used as an effective feed additive for broiler chicken and able to increase daily weight of chicken.
Students of FKH UNAIR who conducted the research were Ahmad Syaifullah (2014), Akhmad Afifudin Al-Anshori (2016), Indah Tri Lestari(2016), Maylendah Larasati Wibowo (2016), dan Dhinar Ramadhani (2016).
Under the guidance of Dr. Widya Paramita Lokapirnasari, Drh., MP., the research was written in the proposal of Exacta Research Student Creativity Program of (PKM-PE) entitled “Utilization of Carrot Extract (Daucus carota L) for Daily Weight Increase in Broiler Chicken “. This proposal has passed the selection of Dikti, so it is entitled to get fund research 2016-2017 PKM of Kemenristekdikti.
Described by Ahmad Syaifullah, the broiler chicken is a cross between Cornish chicken with Plymouth Rock. Broiler farming is one of the largest contributors in the effort to meet the needs of the community on animal protein.
In broiler farming business, the feeds cost is the biggest component of the total production cost, which is about 70%. In order to maximize production with minimum cost, breeders make various efforts. One of the efforts is by adding additive materials.
Why carrots? Ahmad Syaifullah continued, carrots are one of the nutritious feed ingredients. The content of beta-carotene and high levels of fiber in carrots is very useful for the digestive system and it improves bowel performance in the absorption of nutrients. With that potential, carrots can be used as an alternative to feed efficiency in broiler farms, so it can increase the weight gain on a daily basis in the broiler.
“We conducted a study using 100 broiler chickens are bred intensively. At 2 week age, they are divided into 5 groups, consisting of 1 control group and 4 treatment groups given carrot with dose from human to chicken conversion. Furthermore, all doses are mixed in drinking water according to daily needs of broiler chickens, “said Ahmad explains.
The parameters are the rate of daily weight gain of chicken during the breeding period (5 weeks) to harvest. The weighing is done on a weekly basis to 50% of samples from each group, and then divided by 7 to determine the average daily weight gain ( Average Daily Gain) broilers per week. This weight gain can be seen in the diagram.
According to Ahmad Syaifullah, the sufficiency of energy and protein can be used as an indicator to see the nutritional condition of society, as well as the success of government efforts in food development to increase human resources. This is important because broiler farms are the biggest contributor of animal protein to the people of Indonesia.
Ahmad Dkk hoped the results of this study can be a reference for broiler breeders. Carrots in Indonesia are abundant with efficient cost and has been proven in the trial, it became an added value to choose carrots as feed additives for their broiler business. (*)
Editor: Bambang Bes
