Immune response, biochemical indices and caecal bacterial count of Kadaknath chicken under Moringa oleifera supplementation in replacement to soybean meal

This experiment was aimed to study the beneficial effects of feeding M. oleifera dried leaf powder on humoral and cellular immune response, serum biochemical indices and caecal bacterial count for analysing the health status of Kadaknath chicken. 160-day old chicks were randomly allotted to four dietary treatment groups of 40 each with four replicates of Dried leaf powder was included at 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% level of basal diet in replacement to soybean meal to T1, T2, T3 and T4 groups respectively. Antibody titre to ND vaccination and cell mediated immune response to phytohaemoagglutinin phosphate injection was measured, there was significant (p<0.05) improvement in the immune response of supplemented groups. Serum total protein, albumin and glucose showed no (p>0.05) variation among the treatment groups both in starter and grower phases. Inclusion of moringa leaf powder resulted a positive effect on serum lipid profile i.e., there was a significant decrease (p<0.05) in the triglyceride and LDL cholesterol levels of T2 & T3 groups in grower phase. Similarly, markers of kidney function such as creatinine and uric acid values were reduced (pd”0.05) in all the supplemented groups during starter and grower species, however 10% level of inclusion recorded better results. Microbial load of caecal contents from 18 weeks old birds was enumerated for coliforms and lactobacillus. There was significant decrease (p<0.05) in the total coliform count, on the other hand total lactobacillus count was improved (p<0.05). Supplementation of leaf powder resulted a beneficial effect on the health and immune status of chicken.