EFFECTS OF INCLUSION OF DIFFERENT DIETARY LEVELS OF Moringa stenopetala LEAF MEAL ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF BOVANS BROWN CHICKS

The effects of Moringa stenopetala leaf meal (MSLM) on nutrient intake, body weight (BW) gain and economic impact analysis were evaluated. One hundred twenty Bovans Brown chicks were assigned to 4 treatments in a completely randomized design. The control diet, diet in the absence of MSLM inclusion (T1:0%MSLM), the experimental diets contained MSLM at a rate of 3% (T2), 5% (T3), and 7% (T4) with replacement of nougseed cake. The experimental diets were fed for 8 weeks. Amount of feed intake and refusal was recorded on daily basis while body weight (BW) measurement on weekly basis and average body weight gain (AWG) calculated. Daily feed intake of chicks fed MSLM diets were shown to be higher (p<0.01) than for those fed on the control diet. Birds fed on 7% MSLM included diet (T4) scored the highest (p<0.01) BW gain followed by T3 and T2 (p<0.01) while chicks fed on T1 (the control diet) scored least. Feed conversion ratio (FCR, g feed intake/g gain) were lower for chicks fed MSLM (p<0.01).The price of feed in this study was shown to be 1200, 1194.3, 1190.5 and 1186.7ETB for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively indicating the reduction of feed price with increasing level of MSLM. The partial budget analysis of the birds in T1, T2, T3 and T4 was calculated as 106.75, 107.52, 107.47, and107.47net return in ETB indicating that the net return increased with increasing the inclusion level of MSLM. The results indicated that MSLM is a potential plant protein supplement and could be included up to 7% in the diet of grower chicks to substitute expensive conventional protein sources such as nougseed cake. Inclusion of MSLM in the grower’s diet did not cause any mortality in the experimental birds. It can be concluded that Moringa leaves added up to 7% level in the growers diet improves the growth performance parameters of chicken and also led to reduction in the average feed cost, with significant economic gain (p<0.01).