feed intake of chicks were observed only in the total period. The positive control diet and the
diets supplemented with herbal feed additives significantly improved the body weight gain
and FCR of broiler chicks during finisher and total periods compared to the negative control.
This finding revealed that a growth promoter effect was exerted by the herbal feed additives
similar to the antibiotic growth promoter. In addition, the herbal feed additives improved the
FCR of broiler chicken similar to the antibiotic growth promoter. Several research findings
reported that herbal extracts could increase the broiler performance by improving live weight
gain and FCR of broiler chicken (Jamroz and Kamel, 2002; Jamroz et al., 2003; Al-Kassie
and Jameel, 2009). In contrast, Botsoglou et al. (2002) showed that oregano oil showed no
growth promoting effect when administered at 50 or 100 mg/kg of feed. The broiler chickens
fed with diets containing the commercial herbal product, Zigbir recorded the lowest FCR
during total period and the highest body weight gain during finisher period even though it
was not statistically different from the birds fed with Moringa based feed additives except
0.05% Moringa leaf powder level. This might be due to the digestion stimulatory and the
gastroprotective effects as reported by Abdulla et al. (2010), for the herbal components
Andrographis paniculata and Phylanthus niruri in the commercial herbal product Zigbir.
Furthermore, the body weight gains of chicks were increased with the increasing percentages
of both Moringa leaf and fruit powder during the finisher and total periods. Moreover,
numerically lower FCR was recorded in the chicks when the percentage of Moringa leaf
powder in the diet was increased. In contrast, the same was observed in the chicks when the
percentage of Moringa fruit powder in the diet decreases. This could be due to the increase in
feed intake when the percentage of Moringa fruit powder in the diet increases.