Abstract

Effective Micro-organism (EM) is a product characterized by a mix of aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms and reported to have successfully be used for increasing productivity in integrated animal units and poultry farms in many countries including South Africa. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of EM on the production performance of Rhode Island Red (RIR) chicks. A total of 348 RIR day old chicks were randomly divided into twelve groups of 29 chicks each and each group was housed in separate individual pen thoroughly cleaned and prepared in advance. Finally 4 treatments containing 0, 4, 8 and 12 ml of EM/litre of drinking water were randomly assigned to the experimental chicks in completely randomized design with 3 replicates for study period of 12 weeks. Feed consumption, chick growth, feed conversion efficiency and survival rate were used as evaluation parameters. The results showed that there was no significant difference between all the treatment groups (P>0.05) in mean weekly feed consumption though the groups placed on the treatment containing 0 ml/liter of water tended to consume more. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) between all the treatment groups in growth performance during the first 4 week of brooding. However, the mean survival rate (90%) and mean weakly body weight gain to an age of 8 weeks were significantly higher for the groups assigned to the treatment containing 12 ml of EM/liter of drinking water (P<0.05) as compared to the others. The groups placed on the treatments containing 4-12 ml of EM/liter of drinking water showed significantly (P<0.05) higher feed conversion efficiency than the groups assigned to the negative control treatment. In summary the result of this study clearly showed that inclusion of 4-12ml of EM/liter of drinking water resulted in significant improvement in growth performance, feed conversion efficiency and health status during the brooding period of RIR chicks. Investigating into the feasi