Influence of Moringa oleifera Leaf Meal on Egg Lipids and Blood Constituents of Laying Hens

The influence of Moringa leaf meal on egg lipids and blood constituents of laying birds was examined using 120 ISA Brown layers that were 74 weeks old. The hens were assigned randomly to four groups namely, T1, T2 T3 and T4. The design of the experiment was the completely randomized design. Each treatment contained 30 birds which had 10 layers in each of the three replicates. The diet for each treatment contained 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% of the moringa leaf meal in the layers’ mash which was composed of 2700 Kcal ME /kg,15% crude protein, 5% fat, 10% crude fibre, 3.5% calcium and 0.4% phosphorus. At the end of the experiment, 20 eggs of similar weight were picked from each replicate within 72 hours for the evaluation of the cholesterol, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Samples of the blood were obtained from three hens per replicate for haemoglobin (Hb), red blood cell (RBC), packed cell volume (PCV), white blood cell (WBC), Mean corpuscular volume (MVC), Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) as well as the study of the alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total protein, glucose, serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL and LDL. The result revealed that the HDL of the eggs was influenced by the diets such that it was significantly (P < 0.05) greater in T2 and T3, of the fresh eggs and favoured the good cholesterol, HDL of the eggs after seven days (end of the first week) of storage. The Hb, PCV, MCV and MCH of the blood were highly (P < 0.05) influenced by the treatments while the other haematological and serum parameters studied were not affected. In conclusion, the leaf meal had favourable impact on the eggs lipids up to the seventh day (end of the first week) of storage and minimal effect on the blood constituents of the layers at the level of 0.5 – 1.5% of the feed.