Research progress on the nutritional value of Moringa oleifera and its application in livestock and poultry breeding

Moringa oleifera is a high-quality woody protein-rich feed and is widely used to feed livestock, poultry, and aquatic animals. It has broad development prospects with the ongoing increase in the use of traditional feed resources in China. To provide a reference for the in-depth development and utilization of M. oleifera resources, the nutritional components of M. oleifera and the effects of feeding M. oleifera to livestock, poultry, and aquatic animals are reviewed in this paper. The results showed that M. oleifera is rich in minerals, proteins, amino acids, vitamins, and bioactive substances, such as flavonoids and polyphenols. M. oleifera not only increases the growth rate, shortens the slaughter time, reduces the feeding costs, and improves the quality of meat, eggs, and milk but also improves the antioxidant capacity, blood indicators, and immunity when used to feed livestock and poultry with silage or feed additives. To provide a reference for further development and utilization of M. oleifera resources, ecological adaptability evaluation, mechanized harvesting technology development, deep processing technology study, feeding methods, feed formulations, feeding effect evaluation, and the appropriate amount of M. oleifera in aquaculture need to be researched in the future.