High-protein non-leguminous plant leaves in poultry diets: a review

Abstract

In most developing countries of tropics and subtropics, availability of both animal and vegetable protein sources for poultry is lacking and unreliable. This has led to increasing the  prices of feed and acts as the most limiting factor to increasing  poultry production in developing countries. One way to alleviate the problems is through incorporation of high-protein non-leguminous plant leaves like Morus alba, Moringa oleifera, Mannihot escunleta, Ipoemea batatas and Carica papaya in poultry diet. To generate information concerning the use of those non-legume plants in poultry diet, the published literatures in Google Scholar, CAB Abstract, Scopus, PubMed and CrossRef were reviewed. . Results  indicate that those plant leaves contain protein higher than required for poultry, but also contain higher fiber that can be tolerated by poultry. Besides, they  have lower available energy than concentrate feeds and contain antinutrtional factors that may hinder performance of poultry. Compared with concentrate feeds, all  those plant leaves can only be incorporated in poultry diets at low levels. There is a great variation in nutritional composition of those plant leaves and their effect on  poultry performance. The best growth performance of birds fed on high  levels of leaf meals was found in Morus alba, followed by Moringa oleifera Carica papaya and the lowest in Manihot esculenta and Ipomea batatas. It can be concluded that those high-protein non-leguminous plant leaves can be incorporated in diets of poultry at low  levels with varying optimum incorporation levels.