Impact of Supplementation of Moringa Oleifera in Diet of Broiler Chicks on Their Behavior, Welfare, Performance and Immune Responses

Abstract

A total of two hundred and four, one day old Ross broiler chicks were randomly allotted into four dietary treatments floor pen groups (17 birds/ pen, 10 birds/m 2 ) with three replicates for each treatment. The dietary treatments were designed to feed the chick's basal diet supplemented with graded levels of Moringa oleifera leaves meal, MOLM [3%, 5%, 8% and 0% (control) MOLM]. Behavioral observation was carried out twice daily (AM,(7)(8)(9)(10)(13)(14)(15) two days a week for 6 consecutive weeks. Body weight (BW), Body weight gain (BWG) and Feed intake per pen was measured weekly, from which feed conversion ratio (FCR) was calculated. At 30 th day of age blood samples were collected to evaluate anti body titer (HI) against New Castel Diseased Virus (ND). At the end of the experiment, fear responses, differential leucocyte count, Hb and PCV were assayed as well as some carcass traits. Also, mortality rate was estimated. The obtained results showed that higher proportion of birds were engaged in feeding in groups dietary treated with 3% and 5% MOLM, while intermediate responses was shown in birds supplemented with 8% MOLM compared to control ones. The supplemented groups with MOLM showed a lower walking and standing activities than non-supplemented ones. Dietary supplementation with different levels MOLM significantly improved BW, BWG and FCR. In addition, the mortality rates for the dietary treated groups were not affected. The MOLM supplemented groups were less fearful in tonic immobility test, less stressed and had lower heterophil/lymphocyte ratio when compared to un-supplemented ones. MOLM had no effect on Hb concentration and carcass traits. PCV was significantly higher in birds fed 5% MOLM compared to control birds. Birds supplemented with 3%, 5% and 8% MOLM had significant higher antibody titre against ND compared to un-supplemented birds. In conclude, dietary supplementation of broiler chicks with MOLM up to 8% resulted in improved welfare, performance and immune response against ND.

Effect of dietary Moringa stem meal level on growth performance, slaughter performance and serum biochemical parameters in geese

“…Moringa has high biomass yield and crude protein (CP, 25%) and a balance of other nutrients, such as neutral detergent fibre (NDF, 21.9%), acid detergent fibre (ADF, 11.4%) and lipid (5.4%), in the leaves (Makkar & Becker, ). In broilers, diets supplemented with 80 g/kg and 110 g/kg Moringa oleifera leaves increased the final body weight and body weight gain (Melesse, Getye, Berihun, & Banerjee, ; Ramadan, ). Additionally, dietary supplementation of 15% and 20% Moringa oleifera leaves improved the morphology of the bursa, thymus and spleen of broilers (Alnidawi, Ali, Abdelgayed, Ahmed, & Farid, ).…”

Effect of Different Levels of Moringa oleifera Leaves on Productive Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Digestibility of broiler chicks

“…On the other hand, Ramadan [27], stated that body weight gain was significantly higher in all Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) treated groups (0.3, 0.5 and 0.8%) compared to control birds. Average feed intake as affected by addition of different levels MOLP are presented in (Table 4).…”

Effect of dietary supplementation of Moringa oleifera leaf meal on egg quality, composition and anti-stress activity of Vanaraja laying hens

“…This finding further suggested that dietary supplementation of MLM can reduce the level of stress in laying hens. This could be attributed to the hepatoprotective, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of MLM (Ramadan, 2017).…”