USE OF MORINGA/ DRUMSTICK –सहजन-( Moringa oleifera) IN COMMERCIAL POULTRY RATION AS FEED SUPPLEMENT
Post no 1356 Dt 12 th August 2019
Compiled & shared by- DR RAJESH KUMAR SINGH, JAMSHEDPUR,9431309542,rajeshsinghvet@gmail.com
Introduction:
The human population is increasing globally day by day. Meeting the increasing demand of animal protein and providing safe food for human beings that is free from antibiotics by using herbal
feed resources is a great challenge for the animal scientists in the future. The issue considering antibiotic resistance has created an augmented force to reduce antibiotic uses in livestock and poultry
production .Dietary inclusion of herbs and their extracts has growth-promoting roles in poultry .
Furthermore, different natural medicinal plants and their extracts as feed supplements have been used as a substitute for antibiotics in poultry production. In addition, poultry scientists are now dedicated to applying unconventional natural feed supplement, which may play a role in possible therapies to improve the health as well as production performance of chickens..Thus, poultry researchers are searching for potential natural feed resources that will be both environmentally friendly and safe for human society.
India, a country having 1.25 billion population is rapidly growing every year and around 60% of the rural population depends on agriculture. The share of agriculture to India’s GDP is 16% whereas Livestock and Poultry contribute 4.11%. In poultry, feed accounts for 65-70% of total cost of production. Therefore, feeding of adequate amount of balanced and wholesome feed is important for optimum production. Increasing cost of feed ingredients and persistent shortage of protein- and energy-rich animal feeds due to enhanced needs of ever growing human population are the major threats to reassemble the poultry industry into an economic enterprise in India. With the continuing increase in demand of raw feed materials that will suffice the needs of animal growers, a call for extensive search on utilization of the cheap and quality alternative feed sources from indigenous plant species was formulated. India is rich in heritage of medicinal plants with traditional Ayurvedic therapeutic knowledge giving us an opportunity to use them for ethno-veterinary medical practice. Moringa oleifera used as medicine, low cost water purifier (flocculent), human food and animal feed, hedge, seed oil, fibre, it’s easy propagation and pan tropical cultivation justifies more intensive research into its biological and economic possibilities particularly as useful feed ingredients and medicine. Medicinal plants Moringa oleifera having various phytochemicals and bioactive components such as trace metal ions, vitamins, alkaloids, carotenoids, polyphenols, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins are involved in enhancing long-term health benefits.
Moringa oleifera: ————–
Moringa oleifera, commonly known as (family: Moringaceae) horse radish tree or drumstick tree, is both nutritional and medicinal with some useful minerals, vitamins, amino acids. Almost all the parts of this plant: root, bark, gum, leaf, fruit, Leaves, seed and seed oil have been used for various ailments in the indigenous medicine of South Asia, including the treatment of inflammation and infectious diseases along with cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, hematological and hepatorenal disorders.
Moringa oleifera is a widely grown crop throughout the world. This plant is a fast-growing, deciduous tree that can reach a height up to 10–12 m (32–40 ft). The fruit is a hanging, three-sided brown capsule of 20–40 cm size which holds dark brown, globular seeds with a diameter around 1 cm. It is reported that, on a dry matter basis, Moringa oleifera leaves contained 251 g/kg-crude protein, 150 g/kg- total
ash, 54 g/kg- Ether extract, 106 g/kg Nitrogen free extract, 225 g/kg- crude fibre with gross energy content of 18.7 MJ/kg. Further studies revealed that on dry matter basis, Moringa oleifera seeds contained 43.60 % crude fat, 43.71% crude protein, 17.60 % fiber, 3.38 % Ash, and 3.36 % carbohydrate content. Also the sulphur containing amino acids and essential amino acid contents of the leaves were higher than the amino acid pattern of the FAO reference protein, but other essential amino acids were deficient (Sodamade et al., 2017). Regarding antinutritional factors, Makkar studies showed that the concentrations of antinutritional factors (trypsin, tannins, and lectins, amylase inhibitors and glucosinolates, cyanogenic glucosides, and saponins) were either undetectable or negligible in leaves, twigs, and stems of this plant However, hemolytic activity was observed in kernels Hemagglutination activity was detected in kernels and meal but not in their extracted samples.
Properties of Moringa:—————-
Antihypertensive, diuretic and cholesterol lowering activities———
The widespread combination of lipid and blood pressure lowering constituents along with diuretic activity make this plant highly useful in disorders related to cardiovascular system. Moringa leaf juice is known to have a stabilizing effect on blood pressure. Substances responsible for the blood pressure lowering effect such as Nitrile, mustard oil glycosides and thiocarbamate glycosides have been isolated from Moringa leaves. Most of these compounds, bearing thiocarbamate, carbamate or nitrile groups, are fully acetylated glycosides, which are very rare in nature. Moringa leaves, roots, flowers, gum and the aqueous extract of seeds have been found to possess diuretic activity. Moringa fruit has been found to lower the serum cholesterol, phospholipids, triglycerides, low density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol to phospholipid ratio, atherogenic index lipid and reduced the lipid profile of liver, heart and aorta in hypercholesteremic rabbits and increased the excretion of fecal cholesterol.
Antimicrobial activities:————-
Moringa roots are reported to be rich in antimicrobial agents. Compounds like pterygospermin, 4-á-L-rhamnosyloxy benzyl isothiocyanate and aglycone of deoxy-niazimicine (N-benzyl, S-ethyl thioformate) which has powerful antibacterial and fungicidal effects mostly found in this plant. A similar compound is found to be responsible for the antibacterial and fungicidal effects of its flowers. The bark extract also has been shown to possess antifungal activity.
Hepatoprotective, antiulcer and antispasmodic activities: —————-
Moringa leaves have a potential source for antitumor activity. O-Ethyl4-(á-L-rhamnosyloxy) benzyl carbamate together with 4(á-Lrhamnosyloxy)-benzyl isothiocyanate, niazimicin and 3-O-(62 -O-oleoyl-â-D-glucopyranosyl)- âsitosterol have been tested for their potential antitumor promoting activity using an in vitro assay which showed significant inhibitory effects on Epstein– Barr virus-early antigen. The seed extracts have also been found to be effective on hepatic carcinogen metabolizing enzymes, antioxidant parameters and skin papillomagenesis in mice.
Antioxidant activities:————
Antioxidants play an important role in inhibiting and scavenging free radicals, thus providing protection to human, animals and birds against infections and degenerative diseases. The enriched polyphenols and flavonids presence in Moringa leaf contributes towards the anti-oxidative property.
Mode of action of Moringa oleifera:-
Antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of Moringa oleifera were discussed by some researchers. Jabeen et al. mentioned that the antimicrobial properties of the Moringa oleifera seed extracts may be due to lipophilic compounds. These compounds may attach to the cytoplasmic membrane. The authors also suggested that extracts of Moringa oleifera seeds may contain antibiotic metabolites, such as carboxylic acid, 2,4-diacetyl phloroglucinol, and cell wall-degrading enzymes and chitinases. The antioxidant effect of Moringa oleifera leaf extract and fruit was explained by Luqman et al. , who noticed that it was due to the presence of polyphenols, tannins, anthocyanin, glycosides, and thiocarbamates, which remove free radicals, activate antioxidant enzymes, and inhibit oxidases .
Effect of moringa leaf meal on performance of the layers———-
Several studies have been conducted in context to the supplementation of Moringa leaf meal in the layer diet. It was found that use of Moringa stenopetala leaf meal in the diet of Rhode Island Red chicks produced significant increase in feed and crude protein intake, average weight gain, feed efficiency ratios, and protein efficiency ratios. It is due to the presence of readily available protein in moringa leaf meal, which is convenient for monogastric animals, and also to the higher levels of methionine and other essential amino acids. Thus, Moringa stenopetala leaf meal can be included up to 6% in the diet of growing chicks to replace expensive conventional protein sources such as soybean meal and has no negative effects on the chicks (Melesse et al., 2011) It has been reported that, an addition of 10% Moringa leaf meal to the laying hen diet, as a substitute for sunflower seed meal, significantly increased feed intake and dry matter feed intake and decreased egg mass production. Feed conversion ratio (kg feed/kg egg) increased when 20% Moringa oleifera leaf meal was added to the laying hen diet. An additionof 5% Moringa oleifera leaf meal significantly increased egg weight, but lower egg weight was observed at a level of 20%. Thus, Moringa leaf meal can be added to the layer ration up to a level of 10%. Also, dietary supplementation with 5% could improve yolk colour value and protein absorption without adverse effects on laying performance and egg quality (Wei et al., 2018).
Effect of moringa leaf on performance of the broilers———
Studies revealed that broiler diets included at 7.5% Moringa oleifera leaf meal significantly affects average final body weight, average daily gain, average daily feed intake and feed conversion of broiler. Broiler starter and finisher diets when supplemented with Moringa leaf meal (MLM) upto a level of 7.5% showed an increase in carcass colour was well tolerated and can only be included in the feed to levels of up to 7.5% as higher levels affected weight gain, feed intake and digestibility. Experimental results showed that Moringa oleifera meal as protein supplement in broiler diets at 25% inclusion level produces broilers of similar weight and growth rate compared to those fed under conventional commercial feeds (Gadzirayi et al., 2014). Also, supplementation of Moringa oleifera leaf powder in broiler diets at 2-4 g/kg of feed is found to improve growth performance. The scientific studies showed dietary MLM supplementation linearly and quadratically increased feed conversion ratio. Abdominal fat decreased linearly and quadratically, both on days 21 and 42. In breast muscle, dietary supplementation with MLM quadratically increased the contents of C18:2, C18:3n-3, C20:4, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), n-3 PUFA, n6 PUFA and decreased thrombogenic index. Dietary inclusion of MLM improved meat color. Plasma total anti-oxidative capacity, total superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase activities increased quadratically whereas MDA decreased quadratically, in response to dietary MOL supplementation. In précis, MLM could be used as a feed ingredient for broilers to improve PUFA contents, oxidative stability, color of breast muscle, and abdominal fat without adverse effects on growth performance, with an inclusion of 1.56% in the diets. Several other studies reported that addition of the two levels (0.05% and 0.1%) of moringa leaf powder in broiler rations have the potential to improve the growth performance and carcass yield of broilers. Researchers observed the positive effect of MLM supplementation on productive performance, intestinal integrity, digestive organ size, digestibility, bone breaking strength and bone ash content, and meat yield of broiler chickens throughout the production period.
Moringa leaf meal can be used safely at levels of 5% to 20% in broiler diets and up to 10% in layer diets without deleterious effects on performance. Also, it can be used as a replacer of antibiotics in the poultry ration. So M. oleifera can be fruitfully used as an effective natural growth
promoter as well as an immune-boosting agent in chickens’ ration.
