UTILIZATION OF RAW AZOLLA AS A NATURAL FEED ADDITIVE FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION IN NICOBARI FOWL

Abstract

Back yard poultry, a common livelihood for poor farmers in Andaman & Nicobar Islands is facing recession due to prohibitive feed cost. This paper has examined the prospects of supplementing commercial feed with raw Azolla (Azolla pinnata), a nutrient-rich water fern, originally imported from mainland India, but adapted well to the local ecosystem, on the production performance of Nicobari fowl. There has been no such study earlier. Forty-week old, 72 chicks were divided into two groups of 36 birds for the study. The control group was given commercial feed (basal diet) at the rate of 120 g per chick per day, while the experimental group was given raw Azolla, at the rate of 200 g per chick per day in separate feeder, in addition to 120 g of basal diet, from 45-60 weeks. The growth, feed conversion efficiency, hen housed egg production, immunocompetence, and economic impact of supplementation were assessed. The final body weight of the birds (1560.0±26.8 g), and gain in body weight/ day (2.77±1.78 g) were higher, and the feed conversion ratio (36.10 ± 1.19 g) was better in Azolla supplemented group than the birds in control group, during the experimental period (P0.05). The mean hen housed egg production/ week between 45-60 weeks in Azolla fed group (64.76±1.57) was not different (P0.05) from the control (65.25±1.51), so also weekly egg production in different weeks, e.g. 45-48, 49- 52, 53-56, and 57-60 weeks. There was no difference (P0.05) between the two groups with respect to immunocompetence, measured in terms of HI titre, MER titre, Foot Index, and total serum protein concentration. There was 30.73% reduction (P0.01) in feed consumption in Azolla supplemented group that culminated in 0.76 savings on feed cost per egg per day over the control. The study tends to conclude that Azolla is a good feed additive for sustainable egg production in Nicobari fowl with no reconciliation in immunocompetence, but profitable due to savings on feed cost. The role of Azolla as a feed additive for economising poultry production was not reported earlier.