Green poultry production: Efficacy of commercial herb additives as improving bird performance, immune responses and intestinal microbiota in domesticated quails

Eid, Amal A M; ElKholy, Ahmed; Mousa, Mohamed; Abdelaziz, Walaa S.; ElBakrey, Reham Mohamed

doi:10.21608/zvjz.2023.236264.1217

Green poultry production: Efficacy of commercial herb additives as improving bird performance, immune responses and intestinal microbiota in domesticated quails

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Avian and Rabbit Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Sharkia, 44511, Egypt.

² Veterinarian, Zefta, El Gharbia, 31641, Egypt

³ Department of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, 11361, Egypt

10.21608/zvjz.2023.236264.1217

Abstract

Poultry meat will persist as the real and indispensable haven to provide people’s needs for animal protein, and researchers are doing their best to make it safer, free of any harmful constituents that affect human health. The green economy, including the poultry sector, could be achieved by replacing chemical therapy with plant and organic medication. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effect of the adoption of commercial herb product as additives in domesticated quails. In the current study, a total of 140 Japanese quails were divided into 4 groups: 3 groups (b–d) were additively supplemented with Coxan (herb product), Clazo-Fort (chemical anti-coccidial product), and Coxan alternately with Clazo-Fort, respectively. While group "a" act as a control, non-additive group. The assessment of different parameters in the quails after the additive supplementation revealed that the quails supplemented with the Coxan product had an increase in body weight gain in most period durations and was significant at 7–14 days of age with an increase in the index of bursa of fabricius. The HI titer against NDV vaccines and CD4 T cells showed an elevation in their levels in the Coxan group. In addition, the intestinal microbiota revealed that there was a significant increase in lactobacillus counts in the three additive-supplemented groups, with higher significance in the Coxan group (p<0.0001) with the normal histological structure of the intestine. Overall, these results confirm the acceptable improvement in quail performance and the related parameters by using herb product containing essential oils (oregano and garlic oils) as additive supplements, which may make them a probable alternative for chemical compounds in healthy quail farms.

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