ABSTRACT
Poultry is challenged by microbial infection owing to the restrictions in the use of synthetic antibiotic growth promoters. This study investigated the use of ginger, Zingiber officinale Roscoe (family Zingiberaceae) for the control of infections in poultry. Aqueous extracts of fresh ginger was administered to the birds by dispersing in water. A completely randomized experimental design using 100 day old broiler chicks distributed to two treatments having five replicate per treatment. The ginger extract was given to a set of 50 day old birds (ginger treatment 2) and was not added in a second set, which served as the control. The population of microbes (Lactobacillus, Salmonella, E. coli and coliforms) in the crop, ileum and caecum of the birds were determined 7 days before and 7 days after the administration of the fresh ginger extract. Before the administration of ginger, Salmonella population was highest at the crop 1.852 Log cfu/g and decreased afterwards being 1.744 Log cfu/g at the ileum and 1.710 Log cfu/g at the caecum. E. coli was 1.789, 1.821 and 1.727 Log cfu/g at the crop, ileum and caecum respectively. E. coli accounted for over 90% of the coliform population, hence they exhibited the same pattern was observed. Lactobacillus was highest at the crop (1.933 Log cfu/g) and declined through the ileum (1.842 Log cfu/g) to the caecum (1.705 Log cfu/g). The administration of aqueous extract of ginger resulted in a significant decline of all microbial species analyzed over the control (P<0.05). Hence, it is recommended that the use of ginger for the control of infection is plausible but its use must be modified to prevent killing of beneficial microbes in the broiler GIT. The proximate composition of the fresh ginger rhizome used in the study was also presented.