Effect of Moringa oleifera (Lam) Leaf meal on Egg production, Blood and Serum profile of laying Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Abstract

Ninety 12-wk old Japanese quail hens were allocated in a completely design
(CRD)to 3 treatments with 3 replicates of 10 birds each which were fed ad libitum
for forty two days. The diets were formulated to contain 19.8% CP and 2856.2
Kcal/kg ME and (diet 1) T , (diet 2) T and (diet 3) T contained 0, 1.0 and 2.0 %1 2 3
Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM), respectively. Feed intake and egg production
nd
were recorded daily. At 42 day of the feeding trial, blood samples from nine birds
per treatment at three birds per replicate were collected for haematology, serum
cholesterol, total protein, alanine amino transferase, creatinine, albumin, globulin,
glucose, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein, triglyceride and aspartate
amino transferase. Feed intake revealed that hens fed diet T (control, without leaf1
meal) consumed significantly (p<0.05) higher feed (25.37g/day) compared with
those of birds fed diet T 1.0% leaf meal) (23.75g/day) which was similar (p < 0.05)2 (
to the feed intake of birds fed diets T (2.0% leaf meal) (22.78g/day).The hen-day3
production did not differ significantly (p<0.05) among the treatments. Average egg
weight of T (9.79unit) was significantly (p<0.05) different from T (9.38g), however,2 3
T (9.67g) was not significantly different from T and T . The feed conversion ratio1 2 3
followed similar trend as the feed intake and hen-day production. The Results of
serum biochemistry parameters examined were normal and not significantly
(p>0.05) different with Moringa oleifera inclusion levels except cholesterol and
HDL. The Packed cell volume, Haemoglobin (Hb), RBC, White blood cell (WBC),
Platelet, Lymphocytes, heterocytes, monocytes and eosinophils were not affected
(P>0.05) by different inclusion levels of Moringa oleifera leaf meal. However
cholesterol and HDL were lowered at 1% inclusion of leaf meal while blood glucose
and creatinine levels reduced with the inclusion of moringa leaf meal.