author(s)
Insha Afzal, AA Khan, MT Banday, Ashaq Manzoor, Madeeha Untoo, Asra Khurshid, Sofi Umer Bashir and Mir Rovida

abstract
A biological trial was conducted on 192, three days old commercial broiler chicks, distributed randomly into four treatment groups of 4 replicates of 12 birds each, reared for a period of 35 days. The first treatment group (T₁) was taken as control group and offered basal diet without any additive. The other three treatment groups (T₂, T₃ and T₄₎ were fed diets supplemented with 1, 1.5 and 2 % bovine colostrum/kg feed, respectively. The treatment groups offered diets supplemented with bovine colostrum showed significantly higher body weight with the highest body weight recorded in T₄. The final body weights recorded at the end of the trial period were 1503.04±25.16, 1577.99±35.99, 1675.86±77.21 and 1897.02±37.51 in groups T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄ respectively. There was a significant reduction in mortality percentage across the treatment groups. An overall mortality of 11.43% was recorded during the trial. The highest overall mortality being recorded in T₁ (19.23%) and lowest in T₄ (2.5%). T₂ and T₃ showed a mortality percentage of 16.92 and 3.77 respectively. There was a positive impact on the economics of production, thus increasing the profit margins. Economic analysis revealed that the cost of feed/kg body weight gain was Rs 78.20, 73.50, 69.58 and 66.60 in T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄ respectively. T₂, T₃ and T₄ had a relative advantage of Rs 4.70, 8.62 and 11.60 respectively as compared to control T₁. Thus, it was concluded that bovine colostrum could be incorporated in broiler diets @ 2% for better body weight at market age, reduced mortality percentage and improved the overall economics of production.