Impact of supplementing duck diets with Moringa (Moringa Oleifera) leaves

The present work was carried out to study the effect of different levels of Moringa Oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) content as untraditional feedingstuff constituents on ducks performance, carcass traits, blood biochemical parameters and meat chemical composition. A total of 50 mulard ducklings (two weeks old) were randomly divided into 5 groups of 10 ducklings each. The first group was considered the control group (T1) and was fed ad-libitum on a grower-finisher diets. The remaining four groups (T2, T3, T4 and T5) were fed on diets containing MOLM at levels of 2%, 4%, 6% and 8%, respectively. All diets were formulated to be isocaloric (3000 kcal/kg ME) and isonitrogenous (16% CP) as recommended by NRC (1994) for growing ducks. The experiment was extended for 8 weeks. Growth performance parameters include body weight, weight gain, feed consumption, feed-to-gain ratio, relative growth rate, performance index, protein intake, protein efficiency ratio, energy intake and calorie efficiency ratio were all recorded. At the end of the experiment, three randomly selected ducks were slaughtered to evaluate carcass characteristics, meat chemical composition and blood biochemical parameters. The results showed that ducks fed diets containing 2 and 4% MOLM had higher in body weight and weight gain than ducks fed diets containing 6 and 8% MOLM. Feeding of different levels of MOLM to ducklings had no significant effect on feed consumption. The best feed conversion ratio was recorded in group T3 followed by group T2 compared to other tested groups and control T1. Ducks in group T3 fed on 4% MOLM showed improvements in their relative growth rate (RGR) and performance index (PI) compared to other tested and control groups. There were no significant (P>0.05) differences between the control group and the other tested groups in terms of protein intake and protein efficiency ratio, as well as energy intake and calorie efficiency ratio of ducks. Pre-slaughter weight, eviscerated weight and dressing weight were significantly higher in groups T2, T3, T4 fed (2%, 4%, 6%) MOLM compared to those fed on 8% MOLM and control diets. There were no significant differences in the relative weights of the internal organs (liver, heart, proventriculus, gizzard and spleen). Supplementation of duck diets with MOLM significantly (P<0.05) increased DM, CP, EE of the breast and thigh meat compared to the control group, while ash content was not affected. There were no significant (p<0.05) differences between different experimental groups in hematological pictures, except for WBCs, lymphocytic count, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), hematocrit (HCT) and platelets. Inclusion of MOLM in duck diets reduced the serum cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, while the serum total protein and its fractions (albumin and globulin) were not affected. It was concluded that supplementation of Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) in duck diets had beneficial effects on the growth performance parameters, meat composition and carcass characteristics, as well as improved the immunity by increasing the number of white blood cells and lymphocytes and reduced serum triglycerides and cholesterol concentrations.