JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY (Volume 13(1))

Abstract

This experiment explores the effect of Moringa oleifera leaf powder (MOLP) as a natural substitute for synthetic lysine supplementation in broiler diets on storage quality properties of broiler breast meat. The study used 250-day-old Cobb-500 broiler chickens in a completely randomized design, with five treatment groups receiving different proportions of synthetic lysine and MOLP during the starter and finisher phases. The meat quality properties evaluated were pH, water holding capacity, cooking yield, and thawing loss (TL). The results showed that MOLP significantly (p≤0.05) impacted meat quality properties as values recorded for each quality property followed a specific trend. The minimum values (5.35) recorded for pH were in Month1 and Month 2 at T4 (25% lysine and 75% MOLP) and T3 (50% lysine and 50% MOLP), respectively, while the maximum value (6.82) was recorded at Month 6 in chickens fed T5 (0% lysine and 100% MOLP). The dietary treatment also affected water holding capacity, with Month 1 showing the lowest value (2.46 %) in chickens fed diet T4, while Month 6 revealed the value (6.86 %) in chickens fed diet 2. The effect of dietary treatment on cooking yield and loss did not take a specific/straight trend as the cooking yield was highest at Month 2 (69.27 %) and lowest at Month 5 (42.96) in T2 and T4, respectively. The cooking loss was also recorded at 49.73 % in Month 6 in Diet T1 and 31.05 % in Month 1 in Diet T5. The thawing loss followed a steady trend and increased in value from month 1 to 6, with the lowest value being recorded at Month 1 (1.02 %) in chickens fed diet T3, while the highest value was recorded in Month 6 (8.5 %) in chickens fed diet T1. The effect of MOLP as a substitute for lysine on storage duration impacted all the meat quality properties evaluated. Keywords: Broiler chickens, Lysine, Meat quality and Moringa oleifera,