Abstract

VAZQUEZ, Ysnagmy; RODRIGUEZ, Bárbara  and  VALDIVIE, M.. Effect of Moringa oleifera forage meal as an additive on health indicators of broilers. Cuban J. Agric. Sci. [online]. 2020, vol.54, n.2, pp.229-236.  Epub June 01, 2020. ISSN 0864-0408.

The inclusion of Moringa oleifera forage meal as an additive and its effect on health indicators of broilers were evaluated. A total of 28 male broilers (hybrid EB34) of 1 to 42 d of age were used, from a productive performance experiment. They were distributed in a completely randomized design and four treatments were established: control diet (corn-soybean) and three diets, with inclusion of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 % of Moringa oleifera forage meal. At 42 d of age, the animals were slaughtered and the abdominal cavity was opened to determine immunological indicators (spleen, thymus and bursa of Fabricius). The organ weight was expressed as relative weight to live weight (g gLW-1 x100). Blood was extract from the jugular vein to determine health indicators (hematocrit and hemoglobin). The birds mortality was also taken into account. There was no effect of the moringa level on the hemoglobin, hematocrit and mortality values of broilers. An increase in the relative weight of the thymus (P = 0.0151) and the bursa of Fabricius (P = 0.0002) was found in the broilers that received moringa forage meal in the diet. The results showed the possibility of including up to 1.5 % of moringa forage meal in the broilers diet, without affecting health indicators. Future researches are recommended to supplement this information.

Keywords : forage trees; phytobiotics; broilers.

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