Moringa leaf meal as natural feed additives on the growth performance and meat quality of commercial broiler chicken

Farhana Sharmin,Halima Khatun,Md Masud Rana,Md Nazrul Islam,Md Sazedul Karim Sarker,Nathu Ram Sarker,Shakila Faruque

doi:10.3329/ajmbr.v3i2.33576

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary moringa leaf meal (MLM) as a natural alternative to antibiotic on the growth performance, meat quality and carcass yield of broiler chicken. A total of 270 day-old broiler chicks were randomly weighed and assigned to six dietary treatments having 45 birds in each. Each dietary treatment had three replicates of 15 birds and was reared in floor pens. Chicks were distributed in 4 different inclusion levels of MLM in diets; 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% with 2 control diets negative and positive. The birds were fed the experimental diets and water was provided without restriction throughout the experimental period. The results showed that significant (P<0.05) effect on final body weight and weight gain in dietary supplementation of 1.5% MLM as compared to that of control group. Better feed conversion (1.53) was observed at 1.5% MLM group. Different levels of MLM exhibit significant influence on meat yield performance of broilers. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) observed among the average live weight, thigh meat, wing meat, drumstick meat, gizzard and abdominal fat of broilers. Breast meat, heart, liver, large intestine and dressing percentage showed significant difference. Lower mortality was found on diet supplemented with MLM. It is concluded that 1.5% MLM in broiler diets can be used as natural feed additive for enhancing growth performance, organ development, meat yield and serum cholesterol of broilers as well as replacing of oxytetracycline.Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. June 2017, 3(2): 240-244

Highlights

Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) belongs to the single genus monogeneric family Moringaceae and is well distributed in Africa and Asia
This improvement in body weight gain and feed conversion ratio may be attributed to rich content of nutrients in moringa (Sarwatt et al, 2004; Kakengi et al, 2003)
We didn’t found significant difference in abdominal fat except a reducing trend compared to controls but significant reduction of abdominal fat with the increment of moringa leaf meal addition was revealed by Aderinola et al, (2013)

Summary

Introduction

Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) belongs to the single genus monogeneric family Moringaceae and is well distributed in Africa and Asia. Gadzirayi et al (2012) reported that the highest feed intake was recorded in birds offered 25% Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) diet. They reported that MOLM can be supplemented to soya bean meal at 25% inclusion level in broiler chickens. Our intension is to use moringa leaf meal in the broiler diet as feed additives (required up to 2%) but not as feed supplement (can be used up to 30%) because it is yet to be cultivated as fodder crop in Bangladesh. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of moringa leaf meal (MLM) as an alternative to antibiotic as natural feed additives on the growth performance, meat quality and carcass yield of broilers chicken

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusions