Nutrition-Feed Additives T 159 Meat antioxidants , chemical composition and performance of commercial broilers is affected by Moringa oleifera leaves supplemented as feed additive

The present study was executed to determine the effect of Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MLM) dietary supplementation (at levels of 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% of MLM over and above of basal diet), on growth performance, giblet pack, serum biochemistry, and meat bioactive compound index. Two hundred day old broiler (Hubbard) chicks were assigned to four dietary treatment with five replicates of ten birds each in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and means were compared with Duncan’s multiple range test (DMR). Data showed that feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were significantly (P≤0.05) decreased and lowest values were observed in MLM-1.5%. Dressing percentage and carcass weight were significantly increased and highest values were observed in the group MLM1.0%. Relative heart, gizzard and liver weights showed no difference among the groups. Breast meat and feed bioactive compounds β-carotene, Quercetin and Selenium showed a linear significant increase and highest values (0.18μg/100g, 267.34μg/100g, 79.07μg/100g & 8.93mg/Kg, 48.96mg/Kg, 0.54mg/Kg) respectively resulting in significant (P≤0.05) improvement in antioxidant activity indicator DPPH (di-phenyl-picryl hydrazil) radicals scavenging value (36.66%). Breast meat cholesterol level (59.24mg/100g) and serum biochemical compounds Glucose, Cholesterol, SGPT and Creatinine values were linearly decreased. Antibody titters against Infectious bursal disease (IBD) showed significant improvement (P≤0.05). Outcomes of present study revealed that supplementation of MLM in broiler diets showed positive impact on growth performance, immunity and bioactive compounds of breast meat with best results at dose level of MLM-1.5% and may be an alternative to phytogenic feed additives.