EFFECT OF USING MORINGA OLEIFERA LEAVES ON PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE AND SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF JAPANESE QUAIL

Abstract

A total number of eighty four unsexed 7 day old Japanese quail chicks were randomly divided into among four 4 dietary treatments with 3 replicate (7 birds), assigning experimental unit to investigate the effect of feeding Japanese quail chicks on diets containing different levels of Moringa oleifera leaves (MOL) on productive performance, blood constituents, hormones, antioxidant indices, immunity parameters and carcass characteristics. Dietary treatments were: The first group (control) fed a basal diet, while the other three groups were fed a basal diet supplemented with 3, 5 and 7 g of MOL / kg diet during the experimental period until 6 weeks age.  Results showed that treated groups had significantly greater body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, improved feed conversion and increased significantly percentage of dressing and internal organs as well as higher values of nutrients digestibility than the control group. All treatments increased significantly (P<0.05) some blood constituents: RBCs, Hb and PCV, WBCs, plasma total protein, albumin, Ca, HDL, GPX,GSH, SOD, TAC, IgG, and T4 hormones, while plasma cholesterol, total lipids, LDL, AST, ALT  and glucose were decreased. There was no effect on phosphorus (P) compared to control. It could be concluded that adding Moringa oleifera leaves at levels of 3, 5 and 7 g of MOL/kg diet improved productive performance, nutrients digestibility, blood constituents, hormones, antioxidant indices, immunity parameters and carcass characteristics