Malunggay: An EGGcellent feed additive
What’s common between people and chickens? Malunggay.
People, especially Filipinos, often use Malunggay as a nutritive ingredient in viands. In a similar way, a recent study has also showed that mixing Malunggay powder in chicken feeds showed no difference in egg production and egg quality.
A study was conducted to determine the effect of a 10% Moringa leaf powder supplement to layer chickens on the rate of egg production and on egg quality such as egg weight and weight of its components. It was designed to come up with packages of technology that would utilize Moringa products using the facilities and resources of College of Agriculture at Manresa Experimental Station.
From March 2 to May 22, 2009, adding the 10% Moringa leaf powder with the commercialized feeds showed non-significant differences on the rate of egg production of layer chickens. Thus, it shows that it can be a potential alternative feed additive.
Moringa: The miracle tree
The Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology has recently called the Moringa plant as a “miracle tree”.
The miracle tree is not the typical roots, trunk, branch and twigs that you see in a forest. Its appearance is long, slender and has triangular seed pods. The Moringa Oleifeira Lam or commonly known as Malunggay or Kalamunggay has been one of the most nutritious and most grown vegetables among Filipino farmers. It is labelled as “kadautan sa pobre”, Visayan for poor man’s veggie.
This poor man’s veggie has also been already used for different studies for which each serve different purpose. For example, a researcher focused on the Moringa’s uses and chemical constitution. Another looked into the Moringa stems’ potential to address Malnutrition problems. And how it can be a source of an exportable commodity capsulized vegetable oil extracted from Malunggay seed pods.
It’s not given its consideration as it deserves because only recently has it been given that attention nationwide.
Moringa Vs Seeds
Based on the study by Floro Dalapag, Assistant Professor of the College of Agriculture in Xavier University, Moringa leaf powder can be a feed supplement for layer chickens.
In his study entitled “The Use of Moringa Leaf Powder as a Feed Supplement for Layer Chickens at Manresa Experimental Station”, he focused on the effectiveness of the Moringa leaf powder to the egg production and, chicken egg quality.
But no experiment will take place or results to gather without the Malunggay leaf powder.
So how did the Moringa leaf powder come to be? In the Moringa tree, only selected branches will be picked and trimmed, and the leaves picked off from the ach branch. Leaflets are then stripped off the stems. The leaves are spread out thinly under a plastic covered shed and will be mixed frequently. As a result, the leaves become dry and brittle which can be crushed easily. Using the local grain grinder, the crushed dried leaves turns into powder and is then sifted through a net to remove any remaining stem.
The study was originally conducted to serve as a feed supplement for mallard ducks. Mallard ducks are larger and heavy looking. The problem with the study was that it was difficult to find the required number of ducks with the same approximate size. But fortunately, MEDAS had an established chicken layer project with forty layers. It was laid out four sets; each layer had an individual cell. Ten layers were given the 10% Moringa leaf powder daily and the other ten layers were given the usual feeds. It’s important to have a back-up plan which is why the remaining twenty layers will be used as a replicated trial, in case the first try will fail.
The time spent for this study and experiment was summarized weekly for six months but since the available data given was for only an 11 week production, it will still be of use. To illustrate:
Analysis of the available date for the period of March 7- May 22, 2009 showed non-significant differences in the rate of egg production of layer chicken given both the feeds and the 10% Moringa leaf powder. These results indicate that Moringa leaf meal can be a potential alternative feed additive for chicken layers to reduce total amount of commercial feed used.
International Researches on Moringa
While studies have been conducted in Manresa, several studies have also been conducted internationally.
D’Souza and Kulkarni (1993) compared the nutritive value of tender vegetation seedlings of four to eight months in age and mature trees of Moringa Oleifeira Lam:
Seedlings foliage has higher nutritive value than other leafy vegetables
Foliage would be a good source of food and fish feed
Foliage seedling of 31-310 days in age has the highest vitamin content
Moringa, therefore, not only benefits people from its value and health benefits but becomes a potential animal feed additive because of the nutritive value that the layer chickens take in.
Another related study conducted by Makkar and Becker at the Institute for Animal Production in the Tropics and non- Tropics in Germany (1996) on the nutrients and anti-quality factors in different morphological parts of the Moringa showed that:
64% of the total crude protein (is to determine the protein content of a specific food or animal feed) present in leaves found to be degradable after 24 hours in the rumer
87% of the total crude protein was in the form of TRUE PROTEIN
Essential amino acids in the leaves were higher than soya beans
Makkar and Becker concluded that Moringa Oleifeira and residue obtained after recovery of oil and coagulant can be good sources of protein for animal feeds.
All of these lead us to infer that indeed Malunggay is a candidate for feed additives that can benefit both for chickens and people for consumption.
Home-made feeds
Marcela Redila, 63, once owned a poultry farm. She had the poultry farm for all her farm life. But it’s an on and off responsibility considering that two and a half years ago, she and her family came home from the United States.
She’s the kind of person who prefers to feed her chickens organically. She believes that unlike the way she feeds them, the people who sell them at markets are not good for the health because of the chemicals, injections and etc.
According to Holly L. Roberts on her article posted on LIVESTRONG.com about the benefits of organic chicken, commercially-raised poultry often contains hormones, antibiotics and trace amounts of pesticides, all of which can be a potential health hazard. It is said that the antibiotics used may be one of the factors that causes germ resistance in some people.
“I have to provide cracked corn direct from the farm and sometimes congrits alone for baby chicks”, Marcela said. She doesn’t use feeds because like what she said earlier, it’s better organic. But it’s not entirely corn alone, she mix things up with vegetables from her vegetable garden.
What kind of vegetables? “Like for example, the leaves of likway because it has very rich vitamins,” she added. It’s easy to prepare because she just slices the vegetable and sometimes blends it with grated coconut for them to have in snack or during feeding time.
And the best part about the home-made feeds is that, like the Malunggay leaf powder, there is no difference with the eggs even if the farm was just for their consumption.
