Effect of Moringa oleifera and Psidium guajava (Guava) leaves powder supplementations in diets on growth and carcass quality of local Tre chickens

Nguyen Thi Thuy*, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Linh, Ho Thieu Khoi and Le Thanh Phuong¹

Faculty of Animal Sciences, College of Agriculture, CanTho University, Vietnam
* nthithuycn@ctu.edu.vn
¹ Vietswan Poultry Production Joint Stock Company

Abstract

A study was carried out to determine the effect of Moringa oleifera powder (MO) and Guava leaves powder (GU) supplementations in diets on growth performances and carcass quality of local chicken (Tre). A total of 360 Tre chickens at the 4 weeks of age were randomly distributed in a completely randomized design experiment, with 3 treatments and 4 replicates (2 male and 2 female pens), each replicate consisted of a pen with 30 chickens/pen, the experimental data was collected during 10 weeks. Treatments used: (1) Control (Cont): Basal diet (B) without any supplementation; (2) MOP: B + 2% MO in the diet; (3) GUP: B+ 2% GU in the diet. The results showed the use of MOP had significant higher (p<0.05) final weight (1019.5 g/chicken) to compare with control group (956.7 g/chicken), lead to better daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) in MOP (13.14 g/head/day and 3.41 kg feed/kg gain) to compare with the control group (12.26 g/head/day and 3.74 kg feed/kg gain) (p<0.05). Daily feed intake (FI) was not affected by all supplementations (p>0.05). All treatments did not affect the carcass yield of the birds, but little improvement of yellow (b) color of breast (b=9.84) and thigh (b=9.61) meat of chickens in MOP compared to that in control group (b=8.32 (breast) and b =9.40 (thigh). The EE content of breast and thigh meat also reduced in MOP (0.65% and 2.94%) and GUP (0.68 %and 3.00%) compare with Cont group (0.75% and 3.11%), respectively. In general, adding Moringa oleifera and Guava leaf powders at the level of 2% in the diets could be better for improving ADG and FCR compare with control group; and increased yellow color but not with EE content of breast and thigh meat of Tre chickens.

Keywords: growth performance, psidium guajava, Moringa oleifera, meat quality, local Tre chicken

Introduction

Tre chicken is one of the smallest local breed that originated in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, they have small size and the ability to adapt well to the natural conditions of Vietnam. The body is covered with multi color feathers, and the skin and meat are white. Tre chickens have been raised quite commonly in the South of Vietnam. Before, they had been often raised as scene because their colorfull feather (Nguyen Tuyet Giang and Nguyen Thi Hanh Chi 2022). But, they have been raised in high number both small and simi- large scall farmers for meat production recently, they are quiet low growth breed and have small body size with mature weight around 0.9 kg (female) and 1,1 kg (male) at the mature age (Nguyen Thi Phuong et al 2020).

Raising Tre chickens for meat production is now developing in many chicken farms in the south of Vietnam. In the small scale, the chickens are usually supplemented with high proportion of maize meal or concentrate which have some feed additives including to improve yellow skin and meat for better carscass quality. Howerver, adding commercial feed additive is not suitainable for chicken production, so this situation has been pressing the farmers to find other natural supplements in order to improve the growth or yellow color of skin and meat. There are many kinds of herbal powders, which are not popularly using in chicken diets, and there are many studies done on using of herbal powders as growth promoters and for disease prevention.But there is not researches using herbal to improve the growth and color of skin and meat of chickens, especially Moringa oleifera and Guava leaves which are locally growing and available. So, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of some two these herbal powders supplementation in the diets on growth and meat quality of local Tre chickens during 4 to 14 weeks age.

Materials and methods

Materials

The experiment was conducted in a chicken farm in Binh Minh district, Vinh Long city in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam from August to November, 2022. The experiment was conducted on 360 Tre chickens (180 males and 180 females) during 10 weeks of data collection. The chicken house was designed as opening house, the roof was covered with tole, and bedding was rice husk on floor about 10cm thick, and net was used to separate each pen. Total of 12 pens (2m x 1.3m), corresponding to 4 treatments with 30 chickens/pen. Round drinkers and feeders are used to provide water and feed for experimental chickens in each pen. The chickens were vacinated some diseases such as Newcastle disease, H₅N ₁ and pox.. during the experiment.

Experimental feed

Feed compositions of basal diet is presented in Table 1. Feed ingredients in basal diet included maize meal, rice bran, broken rice, fish meal, soya meal, bone and shellfish meal and vitamin premix. The basal diet was supplemented with 2% of Moringa oleifera powder (MOP), or Guava leaves powder (GUP) in the diets. The Moringa oleifera and Guava leaves were cleaned and cut into smaller pieces and dried sufficiently in the sunlight to remove moisture content. After drying, required amount of Moringa oleifera powder and Guava leaves powder were prepared by fine grinding to make powder form. Then these were mixed into the feeds everyweek and fed continuously for 10 weeks.

Experimental design

The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design experiment, with 3 treatments and 4 replications (2 male and 2 female pens), each replication was a pen with 30 chickens/pen. A total of 360 (180 males and 180 females) Tre chickens at 4 weeks age was randomly divided into 4 treatment groups, each group of 2 replications in female chickens, and 2 replications in male chickens, total of 12 experimental units. The control group (Cont) was fed the basal diet (BD) without any supplementation; the experimental groups were supplemented with Moringa oleifera leaves powder (MOP) and Guava leaves powder (GUP) at 2%.

Treatments and Measurement

Treatments were:

Cont: Basal diet (BD) without any product supplementation (Control)

MOP: BD + 2% Moringa oleifera powder in the diet

GUP: BD + 2% G uava leaves powder in the diet

During experimental period, chickens were free to access the water and feed. Leftovers were weighed before adding new feed in the following morning. The chickens were weighed with all 30 birds in each pen as an experimental unit at the beginning of the experiment and every week, and in the early morning before feeding. The experimental data was collected during 10 weeks (from 4-14 weeks age), and variable observations were feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, carcass yield and meat quality. Feed samples were collected 2 times at 5 and 10 weeks of age and analysed of the chemical composition and energy metabolizable of the diets.At the end of the experiment (14 weeks of age), four chickens/pen were selected to be slaughtered. Chickens were chosen for a 12-hour fasting before surgery. Carcass parameters in chickens include: slaughter weight, carcass weight, thigh and breast weights and meat according to the method of Bui Huu Doan et al (2011). Meat samples of thigh and breast were collected for color measurement and chemical compositions.

The parameters included: Average daily gain (g/head/day), average daily feed intake (g/head/day), feed conversion ratio (kg feed/kg gain), carcass quality were evaluated.

Analysis methods

The chemical compositions of feed and meat were determined according to AOAC (1990). Breast and thigh meat colors were recorded using a colorimeter (Chromameter Minolta, CR-400 Head, DP-400/ Japan), which indicated degrees of lightness of a breast or thigh meat samples (L), redness (a) and yellowness (b).

Statistical analysis

Data were analyzed using the General Linear MOPel (GLM) of Minitab Statistical Software Version 16. Tukey pair-wise comparisons were used to determine differences between treatment means at P<0.05. The statistical model used is as follows: Y _ij = µ + α _i +e_ij

Where Y_ij: Growth performances, carcass quality; µ is the overall mean averaged over all treatments; α_iis the treatment effect; e _ij is a random error associated with treatment and replicated within the treatment.

Results

Growth performance and feed efficiency

Growth performance and fed efficiency of the experimental chickens between 4-14 weeks of age are showed in Table 3. Initial live weight was from 97 g/head to 99 g/head, but there was a higher tendency in the MOP treatment compared with the others at the final weight. Average daily feed intake was not significantly different in supplemented diets compared with the control diet. Hence,the average daily gain was higher in chickens fed MOP (13.14g/head/day) than in the Cont (12.26 g/head/day) chickens. Lead to better feed conversion ratio in MOP (3.41 kg feed/kg gain) and GUP (3.51 kg feed/kg gain) than that in Cont (3.74 kg feed/kg gain).

Carcass evaluation

The carcass yield of Tre chickens ranged from 65-66.5%, there was no difference in thigh and breast meat proportion in all treatments.But there was little improvement of yellow color (b) in breast and thigh meat of Tre chickens in MOP and GUP than the Cont.

Meat quality

Discussion

MO or GU powders adding in the diets have not affected the ADFI of the experimental chickens, but there was a small improvement of final weight of chickens fed MOP diet to compare with chickens in control group, which led to little higher ADG of chickens fed MOP diet than that in Cont diet. It can be explained that MO are highly nutritious and being a significant source of vitaminB complex, vitamin C, beta-carotene (Leone et al 2015), and a good source of major nutrients such as carbohydrate, proteins, minerals, lipids and alpha linoleic acid (Moyo et al 2011; Gupta et al 2018); Also might be related to the presence of different bioactive components in MO that may play a role in improved nutrient utilization in supplemented chickens (Khan et al 2017). Shad and Xiang (2019) found that supplementation of MOmay play a role in the immunity and production performance in poultry and as an alternative for antibiotics in chickens. In addition, there is an active component (niaziridin) that was identified from MO, can improve the absorption of different vitamins, minerals, and other micro nutrients in gastrointestinal tract of the chickens (Stohs and Hartman 2015). Beside, research of Alikwe et al (2013) found that the administration of 2-6% Moringa leaves powder in layer diets results in increased egg production, egg mass, feed efficiencies, yolk color and Ca contents in the yolk, but decreased yolk cholesterol contents in laying hens.

The use of GU powder supplement for animal feed is scarce, especially in chickens.But Zargar et al (2020) reported that GU leaves meal is a good nutritional and functional feed potential in livestock and poultry. Because the guava leaves are a rich source of proteins, carbohydrates, and dietary fibers (Geidam et al 2007), but also rich in tannins (Geidam et al 2007). So there are still researching, Zaminur Rahman et al (2013) reported that the supplementation of GU leaves meal up to 4.5% level in diets has high potential as commercial applications for production performance and antimicrobial sensitivity of broiler, it has significant effect on fat content of broiler without affecting the feed intake and feed conversion ratio. And Vivek Saharan et al (2022) found that GU leaves meal supplementation upto 3.5% in broilers’ diets reduced abdominal fat content and improved body weight without affecting carcass characteristics and produce low cholesterol healthy broiler meat.

Colour is another important quality attribute of broiler meat as it influences the choice or rejection of the product by the consumer. Supplementation of MO powder increased yellow color (b) of the thigh and breast meats. It can be explained that dietary antioxidants can modiify the meat color, the oxidative status of meat muscle is directly related to meat quality and has negative effects meat color (Zhang et al 2017). Therefore, dietary supplementation of antioxidant-enriched MO powder would be a potential strategy to improve the meat quality in broilers. Nkukwana et al (2015) also found that dietary supplementation of MO powder significantly reduced lightness (L), but increased redness (a), yellowness (b) of broiler breast meat, because of the pigmenting ability of these leaves, their inclusion seemed to increase the dietary content of xanthophylls, thereby imparting the yellowish colour to the broiler skin. Moreover, the inclusion of MO powder could improve fatty acid profile and could reduce lipid oxidation in breast muscle of broilers, because the improvement of fatty acid profile was due to the presences of saturated fatty acids in MO powder in the diet (Nkukwana et al 2014).

In contrast, adding MO powder reduced EE content of the thigh and breast meats of Tre chickens. It is in aggrement with results of Mickdam et al (2022) who reported the addition of 3% MO to the diet decreased the fat in both thigh and breast muscles, and concluded the addition of MO powder to the diet of broiler chicks improved meat quality and composition.This may be due to the ability of MO to reduce the blood cholesterol level (Alnidawi et al 2016), and also Maheshwari et al (2014) found that MO exhibited cholesterol lowering activities through reduction of intestinal uptake of dietary cholesterol.

Conclusion

• Adding Moringa oleifera and Guava leaf powders at the level of 2% in the diets could be better for improving ADG and FCR of Tre chickens compared to control group
  
  
• Supplementation of Moringa oleifera leaves powder increased yellow color but not with EE content of the thigh and breast meats of Tre chickens.

Acknowlegement

The author group would like to thank to Binh Minh chicken farm in Vinh Long province for their support and creating favorable conditions for us to conduct the experiment and also thanks to Mr. Lam and Mr.Phuc for collecting data and analysis.

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