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Micronutrients as trace minerals play an important role in various metabolic, enzymatic, and biochemical reactions ultimately leading to better growth rate, egg production, and feed efficiency of poultry (Kheiri & Toghyani, 2009). Chromium (Cr) is generally recognized to be the active component in glucose tolerance factor (GTF), which increases the sensitivity of tissue receptors to insulin, resulting in increased glucose uptake by cells (Mertz, 1993). The insulin hormone increases the glucose and amino acid uptake into muscle cells that regulate protein, energy and fat metabolism, deposition of muscle tissue, and cholesterol utilization (Moeini, Bahrami, Ghazi, & Targhibi, 2011). Poultry commercial diets are conventionally composed of plant origin ingredients (basically corn-soya diets) which are unlikely to meet the Cr requirements of growing broilers (Spears, 1999), so available source of Cr with an adequate level should be supplemented in poultry diets. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate the bioavailability of different chromium forms (organic vs. inorganic form) for broiler chickens. Trivalent Cr (+3) is found either in inorganic form of the element (chromium oxide, chromium chloride) or in organic compounds such as chromium methionine, chromium picolinate, nicotinate, and high-Cr yeast (Sahin et al., 2017). Although the mineral form (chromium chloride) is the most important form commercially

The physiological effect of black pepper and turmeric are of great interest due to their antioxidant, nutritional and therapeutic properties. Therefore, the target of this study was to investigate the physiological and immunological effects of black pepper to enhance bioavailability of turmeric on productive performance of growing Japanese quail. A total of two hundred unsexed seven day-old from Japanese quail were divided into four groups, each group was distributed into five replicates, 10 birds in each replicate. All groups were fed the same basal diet supplemented with 0.0%,2% turmeric powder/ Kg diet,0.5 % black pepper powder/ Kg diet for the 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd groups, while the fourth group was given basal diet supplemented with a mixture of 2% turmeric powder + 0.5 % black pepper powder/ Kg diet. All quails were fed the experimental diets from 7 to 42 days of age. The results revealed that dietary supplements turmeric, black pepper either singly or in combination had significantly improved live body weight, weight gain and feed conversion ratio compared to control group. Additionally, results illustrated that combined black pepper + turmeric group had positive effect on protein fraction, globulin fractions(α, β, and γ-globulin), lipids profile, and immunoglobulin G (IgG) compared to other groups. Additionally, combined black pepper with turmeric group recorded highly significant values of thyroid hormones concentration, T3/T4 ratio and improvement SOD, MDA and GSH-Px concentration compared to other groups. Meanwhile, treated groups had no significant effect on feed consumption, liver functions markers (ALT, AST and ALP) and immunoglobulin A and M (IgA, IgM) compared to control group of growing quail. However, there were no significant differences between turmeric or black pepper groups on physiological and immunological responses of growing quails. Conclusion: These results concluded that combining of 0.5% black pepper to 2% turmeric together may enhance productive performance and had significantly improved serum lipids concentration, thyroid hormones, antioxidant enzymes activity, immunoglobulin G of growing quail.

Two hundred and ten unsexed broiler chicks (Arbor Acres) at 7 day of age were used to study the effect of dietary supplementation of different Copper (Cu) forms i.e. inorganic (copper sulfate, CuSO4), organic (copper methionine Cu2-Met) or nano inorganic copper particles (Cu-NP) on the productive performance, hematological and biochemical constituents of blood and immune response of broiler chicks. They were randomly divided into seven dietary treatments with five replicate cages per treatment, six chicks for each. The first group was fed the basal diet without any supplementation (control); while the 2 nd and 3 rd groups were fed the same diet supplemented with 50 and 100 ppm of inorganic Cu (copper sulfate, CuSO4), respectively. The 4 th and 5 th groups were fed the basal diet supplemented with 50 and 100 ppm of organic Cu (copper methionine Cu2-Met), respectively. The 6 th and 7 th groups were fed the basal diet supplemented with 50 and 100 ppb of nano inorganic copper (Cu-NP), respectively. Results showed that chicks fed the basal diet supplemented with different forms of Cu had significantly better LBW, BWG, FCR, economic efficiency and production index. Both organic and nano Cu-fed groups showed significantly better productive performance traits compared with the inorganic Cufed groups. Supplementation of different Cu forms decreased serum levels of total lipids, triglycerides, cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL), whereas RBCs count, hemoglobin, PCV, glucose, globulin, thyroid hormones (T3-T4), immunoglobulin (IgM, IgG), and antioxidant enzymes activity (TAC-GPX-GSH-SOD) were significantly increased compared with the control treatment. Additionally, Cu supplementation increased lactobacillus sp. while decreased total bacterial count (Salmonella, E. coli and Proteus) compared with the control group. In conclusion, Cu supplementation improved the growth performance, immune response and physiological status of broiler chickens. Broilers fed organic and nano Cu-supplemented diets had better growth performance and immune response than those fed inorganic copper.