Replacement of soybean meal by Moringa oleifera leaf meal in broiler diet

The purpose of this study is to determine the replacement capacity of soybean meal by Moringa oleifera leaf meal based on soybean meal crude protein presented in the diet. The trial was conducted by using 450 Luong Phuong broilers, from 15 to 70 days of age, which were divided into 5 treatments, each treatment consisted of 10 birds with 9 replicates. The trial consisted of 5 diet formulas (NT) represented by 5 replacement levels of soybean meal by M. oleifera leaf; the replacement was calculated based on the crude protein level of soybean in Luong Phuong broiler diet. The crude protein content of Moringa oleifera leaf (P-MO) compares to crude protein content of soybean (P-SB) in the diets was NT1 (0% P-MO: 100% P-SB), NT2 (20% P-MO: 80% P-SB), NT3 (30% P-MO: 70% P-SB), NT4 (40% P-MO: 60% P-SB), NT5 (50% P-MO: 50% P-SB). Birds of 5 treatments were fed in ad libitum and all diets had similar metabolic energy and crude protein levels. Result showed that in the replacement rate of 20 and 30% (NT2, NT3), the parameters such as bodyweight gain, FCR, EN index were significantly beter than those of NT1; these parameters in the treatment with replacement rate of 40% (NT4) was similar to that of NT1, and those of the replacement rate of 50% (NT5) were lower than those of NT1. Birds fed with treatments NT2 to NT5 showed some improvement; however, it was not significant compared to birds fed NT1 diet in term of slaughter parameters and meat chemical composition. The carotenoids of the liver and the yellowness colour of the skin in birds of treatments NT2 - NT5 were significantly higher than those of NT1. This can be concluded that protein of soybean meal could be replaced by that of M. oleifera leaf meal in broiler diet up to 40%, however, the best achievement was made at the replacement rate of 20 - 30%.