Impact of Moringa oleifera Leaf Meal on Egg Quality Traits in Japanese quail

To evaluate the effect of diet supplementation with Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) on egg quality traits of Japanese quails, a study was conducted for 16 weeks. For this purpose, a total of 270 adult female quails and 90 adult male quails of seven weeks of age were divided into 5 groups (M0, M0.5, M1, M1.5, and M2) of 3 replicates of 24 birds (18 females and 6 males) each. The groups corresponded to 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2% inclusion levels of MOLM. The egg quality traits were studied fortnightly in four randomly collected eggs per replicate. An improvement (P≤0.05) in the egg quality traits, particularly egg shape index, albumen index, yolk colour score, and Haugh unit was recorded in the quails fed MOLM-based diets which denote better egg quality and higher chances of acceptability of the eggs by the consumer. It is concluded that MOLM can be safely included at 2% in the diets of Japanese quails.