GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

A growth experiment was conducted to ascertain the effect of Graded levels of Moringa oleifera leaf meal on haematological/serum biochemical indices of broiler chickens and cut microbial status. Two research objectives were formulated to guide the study. The study was carried out at the Poultry Unit of the Teaching and Research Farm, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Wildlife Resource Management, University of Calabar, Calaber, Cross River State – Nigeria. Fresh Moringa oleifera leaves were harvested from Moringa trees and collected at Ugbo Village in Awgu Local Government Area, Enugu State and transported to Calabar. The test material (Moringa oleifera) leaves were dried under shade at room temperature of 32°C by spreading them on concrete slabs and allowed drying for two (2) weeks after which they were milled with a grinder to produce the meal of 0.35mm sieve size. The processed test material (the mealed sample of Moringa oleifera leaf) was bottled in an air tight container for chemical analysis to ascertain the effect of graded levels of Moringa oleifera leaf meal on haematological and serum biochemical indices of broiler chickens and also the effect of graded levels of Moringa oleifera leaf meal on gut microbial status. The methods of Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), 2010 were used in determining the nutritional compositions of MOLM and experimental diets. The study concluded that Moringa oleifera leaf meal had no significant effect on haematological and serum biochemical indices of broiler chickens although the indices were numerically increased with increase MOLM level. the recommendation made was that Moringa oleifera leaf meal should be added up to 0.3% to foster broiler performance, physiological parameters and enhance the ability to resist heat stress conditions of broiler fed corn-soybean meal diet.

KEYWORDS: Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM), Graded levels, Broiler chickens, Gut microbial status, haematological and serum biochemical indices