Medicinal plants leaf meal supplementation in broiler chicken diet: effects on performance characteristics, serum metabolite and antioxidant status

This experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of medicinal plants leaf meal on performance characteristics, serum metabolites and antioxidant status of broiler chicken. The experiment employed a completely randomised design. All data generated were subjected to analysis of variance. A total of one hundred and forty four 4-week Abor-Acre broiler chickens were used in a finisher phase, the birds were fed with broiler finisher diets for 28 day feeding trial. The birds were assigned to 4 dietary treatments replicated three times with 12 birds per replicate. Diet I, the control diet (basal diet), Diet II contained 0.2 % bitter leaf meal (BLM), Diet III contained 0.2 % Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) and Diet IV contained 0.2 % of mixture of BLM and MOLM (1:1). The average final live-weight and daily weight gain increased (p<0.05) with the mixture of BLM and MOLM. The feed conversion ratio of birds on control diet and Diet IV were better at 1.91 and 2.03, respectively. The cholesterol levels of birds fed medicinal plant reduced significantly (p<0.05). Supplementation of diets with medicinal plants resulted in a significant (p<0.05) increase in creatinine and bilirubin. The enzyme activities test and total protein were not influenced (p>0.05) by experimental diets. The oxidative activities increased (p<0.05) in the dietary herbal supplement. It was concluded that supplementation of broiler chicken with herbs or mixture of herbs enhanced the growth performance and antioxidant capacity of birds without any deleterious effect on the health status of the birds.Keywords: Bitter leaf meal, Moringa oleifera leaf meal, Serum, Anti-oxidant statu

Gliricidia leaf meal and multi-enzyme in rabbits diet: effect on performance, blood indices, serum metabolites and antioxidant status

Abstract Background Following the ban on the importation of import-dependent fed ingredients in most developing countries, the need to look inward for local content is now compelling. Thus, leaf meals that have phytogenic additive potentials are envisaged will be a viable feed ingredient in rabbit diets. Methods The effect of dietary inclusion of gliricidia leaf meal (GLM) with or without multi-enzyme (E) supplementation in rabbits was investigated using ninety-six 35-day old rabbits of crossbreed (Newzealand and Chinchilla). One basal diet that met the requirements of growing rabbit was formulated (Diet 1). Thereafter, another two diets were formulated to contain 15% GLM and 15% GLM plus multi-enzyme at 1 g/kg and designated as diets 2 and 3 respectively. The rabbits were randomly distributed into the 3 diets (32 rabbits/treatment; 4 rabbits/replicate) and fed their respective experimental diets for 8 weeks. Results The body weight and daily weight gain of the rabbits fed on GLM free diet and those on GLM-based diets (diets 1 and 2) were similar at finishing period of 63–91 day but have lower (P < 0.01) values than those rabbits fed GLM + E based diet (diet 3) at finishing period (63–91 days) and whole fattening period (35-91 days). The apparent dry matter and crude protein digestibility of rabbits fed control diet and those fed 15% GLM based diet were lower (P < 0.05) than those fed 15% GLM + E-based diet. Triglycerides concentration of rabbits fed 15% GLM-based diet without enzyme addition were lower (P < 0.05) than those observed for rabbits on the rest test diets. Cholesterol and Low-Density Lipoprotein levels of rabbits fed 15% GLM and 15% GLM + E-based diets were lower (P < 0.05) than those fed the GLM free diet. The superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase of rabbits fed the GLM free diet (diet 1) were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than those fed the 15%GLM and 15% GLM + E-based diets. Conclusion Dietary inclusion of GLM at 15% of the diet did not have a negative effect on the rabbits postweaning period (35–63 days) but will require multi-enzyme supplementation to enhance growth indices at finishing period (63–91 day) without precipitating negative effect on the rabbits’ health status

Effects of different protein sources on growth and carcass characteristics of African giant land snail (Archachatina marginata) in captivity

This study evaluated the effect of replacing groundnut cake with Moringa oleifera, Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium leaf meal on growth performance and carcass characteristics of giant African land snails. One hundred and twenty (120) growing snails (Archachatina marginata) of 150 – 170 g, aged 5 – 6 months were randomly assigned to four different treatments with three replicates and ten snails per replicate. M. oleifera, L. leucocephala and G. sepium leaves were harvested, shed dried and milled to obtain M. oleifera leaf meal (MOLM), L. leucocephala leaf meal (LLLM) and G. sepium leaf meal (GSLM). Snails in Treatment 1 were given groundnut cake (GNCD), treatment 2 snails had GSLM, treatment 3 snails had MOLM and treatment 4 snails were given LLLM as the protein source in a 13 week feeding trial. Feed intake, live weight gain, shell changes and carcass characteristics were measured using standard procedures. The result showed that weight gain and final weight of snails fed GNCD, MOLM, and LLLM were statistically (p&gt;0.05) similar but significantly (p&lt;0.05) higher than snails fed GSLM. Dressing percentage and percentage visceral weight of snails fed MOLM was highest across treatments. Percentage shell weight was highest among snails fed GNCD, whereas percentage haemolymph weight was highest among snails fed LLLM. Inclusion of M. oleifera and L. leucocephala leaf meals as protein sources in concentrate rations for snails was beneficial for growth and carcass characteristics of growing snails. Keywords: Carcass traits, Dressing percentage, Foot weight, Leaf protein, Leguminous forage