Raja Kishore, K(MAJOR)Srinivas Kumar, DVenkata Seshaiah, Ch.VARALAKSHMI, GORU2019-07-152019-07-152019-02http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810114585THESESThe present study was carried out to study the effect of inclusion of Moringa leaf meal at varying levels on performance, serum biochemical profile, carcass characteristics and nutrient utilization in Japanese quails. One hundred and fifty day old quail chicks distributed randomly to five dietary groups each with three replicates of ten quails and were offered broiler quail diets to meet the nutrient requirements (NRC, 1994). During the experiment, Moringa leaf meal is included at 0.0% (T1: Control), 1.50% (T2), 3.00% (T3), 4.50% (T4) and 6.0% (T5) level by marginal adjustment of other feed ingredients. All the rations were made iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous. Chemical analysis indicated that Moringa leaf meal contained 24.61% CP, 14.53% CF, 8.56% EE, 3.29% calcium and 0.49% phosphorus. Results indicated that body weight gain, feed intake and feed consumed/kg gain (P<0.05) increased linearly from T1 to T3 and then decreased linearly from T3 to T5 with inclusion of Moringa leaf meal from 0 to 6.0% in the diet. The serum biochemical profile of quails revealed that inclusion of Moringa leaf meal up to 6.0% level in the diet had no effect (P>0.05) on serum total protein, globulin, triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL and VLDL cholesterol, creatinine content in quails. Further, inclusion of Moringa leaf meal in the diet had increased (P<0.05) serum albumin, HDL cholesterol, calcium and phosphorus content and decreased (P<0.01) serum glucose content with increased level of inclusion of Moringa leaf meal from 0 to 6.0% in the diet. The digestibility of DM, OM, CP, CF, EE, NDF and cellulose (P<0.05), NFE (P<0.01) increased linearly from T1 to T3 and then decreased from T3 to T5 with increased level of inclusion of Moringa leaf meal in the diet while there was no effect (P>0.05) on ADF and hemi-cellulose digestibility. Similarly, the percent nitrogen and calcium (P<0.05) utilization increased linearly from T1 to T3 and then decreased linearly from T3 to T5 with increased level of inclusion of Moringa leaf meal in the diet while there was no effect (P>0.05) on percent phosphorus utilization. Further more, carcass yield (g), ready to cook yield (P<0.05) increased linearly from T1 to T3 and decreased linearly from T3 to T5 with increased level of inclusion of Moringa leaf meal in the diet. However, inclusion of Moringa leaf meal had no effect (P>0.05) on dressing percent, meat to bone ratio, percent weight of heart, liver, gizzard and giblets in quails. The feed cost / kg gain decreased by 4.05 in T2, 7.27 in T3, 4.66 in T4 and 2.79 in T5 groups of quails fed diets containing Moringa leaf meal up to 6.0% level as compared to the control. The study indicated that Moringa leaf meal can be incorporated up to 3.0% level in the diet of quails without any adverse effect on performance.ennullThesis