Effect of Moringa seed meal as a feed additive on performance of fattening male Barki sheep

Moringa Oleifera Lam. is a tree native to the Indian subcontinent and has been naturalized in various tropical and subtropical areas around the world. The fresh leaves, flowers and pods are consumed for human feeding, while may also use in livestock feeding. Many researchers evaluated the effects of using Moringa Oleifera parts as additive to farm animals feed on feed intake, and digestibility and found that it may had positive effects on them. The main goal of this experiment was to appraise the effects of using Moringa seeds as a feed additive on growth performance, body measurements and blood biochemistry of fattened Barki sheep. Thirty 5-months old male Barki lambs were choosed randomly from the fattening research herd of Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University for this study. Lambs had 25.3+0.9 kg average initial live weight were involved in two groups each of 15 heads and fed according to NRC 2001. The first group (control) fed on concentrate commercial mixture (14% total protein and 65% total digestible nutrient) with no Moringa seed meal added. The second group (MSM) fed the same concentrate mixture supplemented with 4 g of Moringa seed per day/head. Lambs body weights were recorded at the beginning of the trial, and then every 15-days throughout the experiment which lasted 45 days. Similarly, measures of body length, height at wither, chest girth and round circumference were recorded along with body weights. The average final body weight of control lambs (31.5+1.6 kg) was less (P < 0.001) than that of MSM group (34.5+1.4 kg), similarly the daily gain was significantly more  (P < 0.05) with MSM group ( 0.276+0.1 g) than control group (0.138+ 0.1 g). The corresponding body measurements were not significantly different in control than MSM group. The supplement to diet of lamb fattened lambs increased total protein concentration in the blood (5.63±0.16 mg/dL) (P = 0.01) compared to the control (5.15±0.08mg/dL). Also, all components of blood serum which were within the normal range, indicating that it is safe to use Moringa seeds.