Vet World Vol.13 April-2020 Article-26
Research Article
Veterinary World, 13(4): 789-795
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.789-795
Effects of using essential oil of Lavandula stoechas in quail feed on growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality, and health status
2. Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Life and Earth Sciences, University of Ghardaia, Ghardaia, 47000 Algeria.
3. Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Sétif 1, El Bez, Sétif 19000, Algeria.
Background and Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effects of essential oil of Lavandula stoechas (Lavender) on growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality, and health status of quails.
Materials and Methods: A group of 600 1-day-old Japanese quail chicks (Coturnix japonica), with an average weight of 6.8±0.2 g and a 1:1 sex ratio, were randomly assigned to four groups (150 chicks/group): three experimental groups which depend on the incorporation of lavender oil (LO) in the different phases of breeding and one control group. The experimental groups received a supplement of 1 g LO per kg of feed distributed sequentially throughout the entire 42-day breeding period.
Results: No deaths were recorded throughout the breeding period. Highly significant differences were observed among the groups with regard to body weight measured on day 20 and day 42 (p<0.001 and p<0.01, respectively). The addition of LO was accompanied by reductions in liver weights; furthermore, LO had a significant effect on the pH, water content, and fat content of the meat (p<0.05). Administration of LO had a measurable effect on the endogenous intestinal population of Lactobacillus, and the bacterial load (including those of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus) was significantly reduced.
Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that supplementing quail feed with LO has a profound effect on their growth as well as antimicrobial effects. Keywords: fat content, Japanese quail, lavender oil, microbial load, water content, zootechnical performance.
Keywords: fat content, Japanese quail, lavender oil, microbial load, water content, zootechnical performance.
How to cite this article: Laghouati O, Arbouche F, Arbouche Y (2020) Effects of using essential oil of Lavandula stoechas in quail feed on growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality, and health status, Veterinary World, 13(4): 789-795.
Received: 13-12-2019 Accepted: 11-03-2020 Published online: 26-04-2020
Corresponding author: Fodil Arbouche E-mail: arbouchefodil@yahoo.fr
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.789-795
Copyright: Laghouati, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.