CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MORINGA (MORINGA OLEIFERA LAM.) LEAVES AND TURMERIC (CURCUMA LONGA LINN.) RHIZOMES AND THEIR DIETARY INFLUENCE ON BROILER-CHICKEN PRODUCTION

Abstract

The quest for the usage of herbs and botanicals to enhance performance and product quality in livestock production is on the increase; hence four interrelated experiments were conducted to evaluate the chemical characteristics of moringa leaf meal (MLM) and turmeric rhizome powder (TRP) and their dietary influence on broiler chicken production. In experiment I, proximate and chemical analyses of these botanicals were conducted with MLM and TRP having 25.21 and 10.07% CP respectively with lots of vitamins and phytochemicals. Subsequently, a total of 750 day old unsexed Ahbor acre broiler chicks were obtained and raised in 3 batches for 4 weeks pre-experimental periods for the conduct of experiments II, III and IV. In each experiment, 200 four week old broiler chickens were randomly allotted to 5 dietary Treatments, which were replicated 4 times with10 birds/replicate. Each feeding trial lasted for a period of 4 weeks. In experiment II, dietary soyabean meal (SBM) was partially replaced on equi-protein basis of 0, 12.5, 25, 37.5, and 50% with MLM to form Treatments (T) 1 (control), 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. The growth performance results showed a significant (p<0.05) difference as birds in T2 recorded optimal results of 2409.50±72.28 and 1524.50±68.50g/bird as final weight (FW) and total weight gain (TWG) respectively while T5 had the least values of 2087.50±144.08 and 1197.50±145.23g/bird respectively. Results of lipid oxidation indicated a significant (p<0.05) difference, with T1 recording the highest (p<0.05) value of 1.69±0.11 while T5 obtained the least value of 0.97±0.13Mg/MDA/kg of meat at day 5 of storage. Skin and shank pigmentation scores increased with increase in MLM inclusion levels. Lipid content of meat revealed a continuous decrease (p<0.05) with increase in MLM levels. The dietary Treatment (T2), that gave the best performance (p<0.05) in experiment II in terms of FW and TWG was supplemented with TRP at graded levels of 0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10g/kg to form Treatments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively for experiment III. The results showed that broiler chickens in T3 performed best (p<0.05) in TWG and FWG with 2517.50±44.25 and 1692.50±17.08g/bird respectively. Oxidative stability, lipid content of the meat, shank and skin pigmentation were significantly (p<0.05) influenced by the experimental diets as the values increased with increase in TRP supplementation. Experiment IV was conducted using the dietary Treatment (T3) whose birds recorded superior performance in experiment III to ascertain the effect of length of feeding MLM and TRP over a duration of 4 weeks. T1 constituted the control with birds fed diets without MLM and TRP throughout the 4 weeks trial. Birds in Treatments 2, 3, 4 and 5 were fed diets containing 12.5% MLM and 5g/kg TRP for 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks respectively. Thus birds were fed experimental diets for 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks to form dietary Treatments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. At the end of the trial, the results indicated no significant (p>0.05) difference in growth indices. However, lipid oxidation, lipid content of the meat, liver antioxidant, bacteriological assessment of grilled meat, shank and skin pigmentation values were significantly (p<0.05) improved with increase in the length of feeding. Overall results of the investigation revealed that 12.5% MLM and 5g/kg TRP supplementation have the potential to improve broiler chicken performance and meat quality