Vol. 9, Special Issue 4, Part H (2025)

A feeding trial was conducted to discern the influence of dietary incorporation of Moringa oleifera leaf meal on carcass trait assessments i.e. chemical composition, sensory characteristics and processing losses of meat in broiler Japanese quail. A total 288 day-old Japanese quail chicks were randomly distributed into eight treatments of 36 Japanese quail chicks per treatment with three replicates of 12 quail in each. Japanese quail of treatment T₁ (control group) were fed a basal diet (starter and finisher), whereas in treatment group T₂ basal diet was incorporated with Vitamin C @200 mg/kg, T₃ basal diet was incorporated with Vitamin E @10 IU/kg, and in diets T₄, T₅, T₆, T₇, and T₈, the basal diet was incorporated with 1.0%, 3.0%, 5.0%, 7.0% and 9.0% Moringa oleifera leaf meal, respectively. Results showed that non-significant (P≥0.05) difference were noticed in average crude protein, ether extract and total ash (%DM basis) percentage of broiler Japanese quail meat (breast and thigh muscles) in different treatments groups when broiler Japanese quail was fed diet with different levels of Moringa oleifera leaf meal. But significantly (P≤0.05) improvement in sensory characteristics viz., appearance, flavour, juiciness, texture, tenderness and overall acceptability of meat of Japanese quail birds as compared to control. It can be concluded that 3.0% drumstick (Moringa oleifera) leaf meal can be incorporated in feed for improvement of nutrient composition of meat and sensory evaluation of meat in broiler Japanese quail.