No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

A biological assay was carried out to evaluate the impact of dietary tryptophan (TRP) in aflatoxin B1‐contaminated diets (AFB1‐D) on performance, blood parameters, immunity, meat quality and microbial populations of intestine in Japanese quails. Six experimental diets were formulated to include two levels of dietary TRP; 2.9 (moderate high: MH‐TRP) and 4.9 g/kg (excess: Ex‐TRP); and three levels of AFB1 (0.0, 2.5, and 5.0 mg/kg). Each experimental diet was fed to the one of the six groups of birds from 7 to 35 days of age in a completely randomized design with 2 × 3 factorial arrangement. Decrease in feed intake, body weight gain and gain:feed in birds fed 5.0 mg/kg AFB1‐D was restored to the control level by 4.9 g TRP/kg of the diet. The hepatic enzymes in blood were elevated in quails fed on AFB1‐D but attenuated by 4.9 g TRP/kg of the diet (Ex‐TRP; p ≤ .01). High serum uric acid in birds challenged with AFB1 significantly decreased by Ex‐TRP (p ≤ .01). The skin thickness to 2,4‐dinitro‐1‐chlorobenzene challenge suppressed by AFB1 but increased by Ex‐TRP diet (p ≤ .02). The AFB1 increased the malondialdehyde in meat, whereas TRP efficiently diminished malondialdehyde production (p ≤ .01). The greatest drip loss and pH in meat were observed in the birds fed 5.0 mg/kg AFB1‐D but Ex‐TRP augmented the adverse effects of AFB1 (p ≤ .01). The Ex‐TRP reduced the total microbial and Escherichia coli counts (p ≤ .01). The adverse effect of AFB1 on ileal Lactic acid bacteria was completely prevented by Ex‐TRP (p ≤ .03). This study showed that tryptophan supplementation could be considered as a powerful nutritional tool to ameliorate the adverse effects of AFB1 in growing quails.

No abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the growth pattern of seven strains of Japanese quail including Wild, Italian Speckled, Tuxedo, Scarlett, English white, White button, and A&M Texas by nonlinear growth functions including Gompertz, Richards, logistic, Lopez, and Weibull functions. The body weights of the unselected randomly bred populations of these strains were measured weekly from 1 to 42 days of age and then used to fit functions. The fitness of each function was assessed by statistics including the mean square error, Akaike information criterion, Bayesian information criterion, and adjusted coefficient of determination. The results showed that Gompertz was the best function for describing the growth curve in Italian Speckled and Wild strains; however, the best function for the other strains was the logistic function. The maximum and minimum values for age and weight at the inflection point were obtained for the White button and Scarlett strains, respectively. The weight to age ratio at the inflection point was maximized for Italian Speckled. The best growth rate was observed for the Italian Speckled strain, whereas the White button strain exhibited the worst growth rate. In conclusion, the Italian Speckled strain had the best properties among the tested strains for breeding as broiler poultry. Research ArticleThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 442FARAJI-AROUGH et al. / Turk J Vet Anim Sci specific fixed marker genes for plumage color, eggshell color, and brooding groups making similar colonies. It is supposed that these marker genes do not affect the growth pattern in poultry (12), whereas the effect of the roux plumage color mutation on growth was reported by Minvielle et al. (16). The results of several studies showed that selection of the growth function must be strainspecific (12,20). The present study was undertaken to compare growth patterns of quail strains using nonlinear functions. Materials and methodsThe experiment was performed in the Research Center of Special Domestic Animals (RCSDA), Research Institute at University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran. A total of 470 one-day-old Japanese quails including Wild (n = 83), Italian Speckled (n = 136), Scarlett (n = 41), Tuxedo (n = 44), White button (n = 31), English white (n = 64), and A&M Texas (n = 71) strains were obtained from the genetic stock of the RCSDA hatchery from unselected and randomly mating parents. On hatching day, all chicks were identified by wing bands, and they were fed a normal diet containing 250 g CP/kg and 2900 kcal J ME/kg. The birds had ad libitum access to feed and water throughout the experiment. A lighting schedule of 23:1 h (light:dark) was used during the experiment. Room temperature was scheduled to drop gradually from 35 °C the first week to 20-25 °C for the following weeks. Body weights of the birds were recorded weekly. The records for quails that died before 42 days of age were excluded from the analyses.Five nonlinear functions including the Gompertz, Richards, logistic, ...