Effect of Moringa oleifera leaf powder in diets on laying hens performance, β-carotene, cholesterol, and minerals contents in egg yolk

Abstract

Abstract The present study was designed to investigate the influence of Moringa oleifera on Laying Hens Performance, β-carotene, cholesterol, and minerals contents in egg yolk. Two hundred and forty 30 weeks of healthy laying hens with homogeneous body weight in a complete randomized design with four treatments and 6 replications. Laying hens were randomly divided into four groups: M0: diets without administration of Moringa oleifera leaves, M1: diets with 2% Moringa oleifera leaves; M2: diets with Moringa oleifera leaves 4%; and M3: diets with 6% Moringa oleifera leaves, respectively. Each treatment consisted of six replication cages with 10 birds randomly assigned to each cage. This study showed that administration of the Moringa leaves powder were increased significantly different on egg productions, egg mass, feed efficiencies, yolk color, shell thickness, Mg and Ca contents in eggshell, but not the efficiency of feed consumption. The administration of 2-6% Moringa leaves powder in diets results in significantly lower yolk cholesterol contents. It was concluded that supplementation of 4-6% Moringa leaves powder in diets, increased egg production, egg mass, feed efficiencies, yolk color, shell thickness, β-carotene, Mg and Ca contents in the yolk, but decreased yolk cholesterol contents in laying hens.