Effects of a Dried Neem Leaf Extract on the Growth Performance, Meat Yield and Meat Quality in Skeletal Muscle of Broiler Chickens Under High-Temperature Conditions

Abstract

We aimed to examine the effects of cyclical high ambient temperature (HT) and dried Neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf extract (DNE) supplementation on the growth performance, muscle lipid peroxidation level, and muscle drip loss of broiler chickens. Twenty-four 15-day old broiler chickens (Chunky strain ROSS 308) were divided into four treatment groups that were fed diets with or without 2.0% DNE under thermoneutral (25 ± 1°C) or cyclical HT (35 ± 1°C for 8 h/day) conditions. Supplementation of DNE did not affect the growth performance of the chicks, but HT reduced their feed intake, the weights of breast muscle and heart. In addition, supplementation with DNE ameliorated the negative effects of cyclical HT on feed intake and breast muscle mass. Furthermore, cyclical HT increased the malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration and drip loss over 48 h of storage of the breast muscle, and these effects were ameliorated by DNE. Collectively, we conclude that dietary supplementation with DNE reduces the muscle MDA concentration and drip loss of broiler chickens kept under HT conditions.

Phytochemicals content and in-vitro antioxidant properties of Azadirachta indica seeds, leaves and twigs prepared from different extraction techniques

“…Antioxidant activities of neem leaves from India (Wandscheer et al, 2004), England (Salehzadeh et al, 2003), Nepal (Ghimeray et al, 2009, Brasil (Nagano and Batalini 2021), Thailand (Sithisarn et al, 2006), Nigeria (Olaitan et al, 2021 have also been reported. Neem leaves and oil were reported maximum antioxidant activity % because of its phenolic compounds and enormous scavenger ability towards free radical (Nikolova et al, 2022;Nakamura et al, 2022). These observations are a close agreement to the current study.…”