Garlic oil has a strong antibacterial activity against a wide range of gramnegative and gram-positive bacteria as well as, antifungal properties. This study aimed to assess the effects of spraying fertile hatching eggs of Japanese quail with garlic oil solution on embryonic development, hatchability, physiological parameters, post-hatch chick growth and bacterial load on eggshell surface. Four hundred hatching eggs of Japanese quails were equally divided into four treatment groups. Eggs of the first group served as a control group without any treatment. Also, eggs of the second group served as a control but sprayed only with distilled water. Eggs of the third and fourth groups were sprayed by 1ml/liter and 2ml/liter garlic oil solution, respectively. Embryo weight, shank length, body length as well as, chick weight, chick shank length, chick body length and hatchability tended to be higher significantly (P<0.05) in eggs treated with garlic oil solutions when compared with control eggs. While hatch time, embryonic mortality, egg albumen weight ratio, egg shell thickness and egg weight loss ratio at 14 days of incubation were significantly (P<0.05) decreased in eggs sprayed with garlic oil solutions when compared with control eggs. Blood hematological parameters (RBCs, Hb and PCV), plasma total protein, albumin, total lipids, hormones, immunoglobulin G (IgG) were significantly increased (p<0.05), while plasma glucose was decreased. There was no effects on plasma cholesterol compared to control. WBCs count was slightly increased in number in response to spraying with garlic oil solution. Carcass constituents of chicks at hatch and growth performance (body weight, feed intake and body weight gain) of chicks at 14 days of age recorded significant higher values and improved feed conversion in response to spraying with garlic oil solutions. In contrast, yolk residual of chicks at hatch was lower than control group. Application of garlic oil had significant influence on TBC on the surface of egg shell either at one week or after two weeks of incubation compared to control groups. Intestinal total aerobic, anaerobic microflora counts and the count of total coliform of chicks were decreased. In conclusion, Spraying Japanese quail eggs with garlic oil solution as natural disinfectants (pre-incubation) is a good way to improve embryonic development, hatchability, blood constituents, hormones and immunity of hatching chicks and lowering the bacterial contamination of eggshell surface of quail eggs.

A wide variety of feed additives like prebiotics are recently used in poultry diets as better alternative to antibiotic growth promoters, chitosan is one of those prebiotics. Chitosan is a natural bio-polyaminosacharides, biodegradable and non-toxic biopolymer (Vimal et al., 2013) derived from alkaline deacetylation of chitin from shrimp wastes and fungal biomass (Darwesh et al., 2018). Chitosan has specific bioactivities such as immune-enhancing properties and antibacterial activities (Alishahi, 2014). Many of studies have been performed on chitosan research Article Abstract | This study aimed to examine the effects of dietary chitosan (CH) and nano-chitosan (NCH) supplementation as prebiotics on growth performance, carcass characteristics, plasma constituents, antioxidant status and microbial counts of two lines of Japanese quail. A total of 840 unsexed selected Japanese quail (SJQ) and Japanese quail ( JQ) (one day old) with an average initial body weight of 11.65 ±0.03 g and 9.11± 0.04 g, respectively were used in 10 treatment groups, each group has 3 replicates having 28 quail chicks in each. The experimental groups for each line were as follows: The 1 st group was fed the basal diet and served as the control; the 2 nd and 3 rd groups were fed the basal diet supplemented with CH at 50 and 70mg/kg diet; the 4 th and 5 th groups were fed the basal diet supplemented with NCH at 30 and 50 mg/kg diet. The results showed that SJQ group had a higher (P<0.0001) live body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and better feed conversion ratio. The group of SJQ birds fed diet supplemented with 70 mg CH had the highest (P<0.05) live body weight. The diet supplemented with 70 mg CH gave the highest plasma total protein (P<0.05) for SJQ and JQ groups. Diets supplemented with 70 mg CH or 50 mg NCH exhibited the highest albumin level and TAOC (P<0.0001). The lowest cholesterol content (P<0.05) was obtained by SJQ groups fed diet supplemented with 70 mg CH or 50 mg NCH and JQ groups having 70 mg CH or 50 mg NCH. The lowest LDL cholesterol content (P<0.0001) of plasma was for SJQ fed diet supplemented with 70 mg CH and JQ fed diet supplemented with 30 mg NCH. Supplementation of 30 and 50 mg NCH recorded higher (P<0.0001) Lactobacillus count and the lowest (P<0.0001) E.coli and Salmonella counts for SJQ and JQ. In conclusion, the dietary supplementation of CH and NCH in different quail lines diets could be used as an antioxidant and antibacterial additive without causing any negative effects on growth performance, carcass characteristics and plasma constituents.

ne hundred and eight 8 wk-old Japanese quail were distributed randomly into six different dietary treatments in a 2 x 3 factorial with three replicates, each containing 6 birds (2 males and 4 females), assigning experimental unit to investigate the effect of vinegar (acetic acid) and date residues (date's by-product) on egg production, fertility and hatchability percentages, some physiological characteristics, blood parameters, hormones, antioxidant indices and immunity parameter. Average temperature ranged between 40°C and 43°C with 50 % relative humidity from 8 to 14 weeks of age. Dietary treatments were date residues levels (0 and 10%) supplemented into diets with three levels of acetic acid (0.0, 0.5 and 1ml /liter water) in drinking water. Results showed that dates residues and vinegar (acetic acid) and interactions between them had significant effect on all the productive performance (egg weight, egg production, egg mass/hen/day, feed conversion as (g feed/g egg)) and improved significantly (P<0.05) fertility and hatchability percentages while decreased significantly (P<0.05) non pipping embryos (%) and embryonic mortality (%). All treatments and interactions between them increased significantly some blood hematological, blood biochemical parameters, antioxidant indices and immunity parameter and hormones of quail, i.e., total protein, albumin, total lipids, HDL, GPX ,GSH, SOD, IgG, progesterone and T3, T4 hormones, but WBCs count in all treatments were slightly increased in number, while serum cholesterol, glucose concentrations, AST and ALT were decreased significantly (P<0.05) birds' in compared with control group. The nutrients digestibility were improved by treatment groups and interactions between them. The counts of total aerobic and anaerobic bacteria and total coliform of chick intestinal were decreased due to add different treatments compared with the control. In conclusion, It may be the application of date residues 10% (in feed) with vinegar (acetic acid) in drinking water (0.5 or 1ml/liter) improved the productive performance such as egg production, fertility, hatchability percentages, some physiological parameters and nutrients digestibility of laying Japanese quail during summer season.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the pomegranate seeds powder (PSP) as an effective antioxidant in growing rabbit's diets to alleviate the adverse effects of organochlorine pesticides residues (OCPs) on growth performance, antioxidant status and physiological parameters of growing rabbits. A total of 120 unsexed weaned V-Line male rabbits (4 weeks of age) were assigned at random to five experimental groups. The control group was fed a diet free of PSP. The negative control was fed a diet free of PSP and OCPs, while the other empirical groups were fed the same diet supplemented with 500, 750 and 1000 g of PSP/100 kg diet. The results indicated that PSP contained content of vitamin C and vitamin E; 3.13 and 1.45 mg/100g, respectively. The content of total phenols was 0.27% and total flavonoids were 0.21 %. The accumulation of OCPs was concentrated in the rabbit`s liver, followed by the muscle. The control diet contaminated with Alpha Benzene hexachloride (αBHC), Delta Benzene hexachloride (∆BHC), dildren and methoxychlor values. Dietary supplementation of PSP at levels of 750 and 1000 g tended to improve average daily gain and feed conversion ratio compared to the control group. Rabbits fed diet containing 1000g PSP had the lowest mortality %. Edible giblets were significantly increased in the treated groups. The values of Hemoglobin, Packed cell volume, White Blood Cell, lymphocyte, total protein, globulin, higher density lipoprotein (HDL), Total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were improved, but plasma low density lipoprotein (LDL) and total lipids levels were decreased in the treated groups. A significant decrease of plasma and liver malondialdehyde (MDA) level and significant increase in liver (GPx) and catalase (CAT) were observed in rabbits fed diets supplemented with PSP groups. Conclusively, dietary pomegranate seed powder supplementation improved growth performance and enhanced the antioxidant status. So it eliminated the adverse effects of oxidative stress induced by organochlorine pesticides of growing rabbits diets.

A total of 93 litters produced from 36 does pedigreed by 13 dams and 9 sires, were analyzed using Animal Model Procedure (MTDFREML). Traits assessed were Litter Size traits, at birth, LSB; at 21 days, LS21 and at weaning, LSW (at 35 days) on two consecutive years. Heritability estimates of all considered litter traits were low. Genetic correlations among LSB and LSW were moderate and positive (0.490). The ranges of the NZW does transmitting ability (TA) were 0.814, 0.278 and 0.168 bunny for LSB; LS21 and LSW traits, resp. The percentages of positive breeding values estimate were 48.7, 48.7 and 56.4% for LSB; LS21 and LSW traits, rasp. Comparable significant moderate Pearson and Spearman correlation were obtained among BLUP's values& Ranks of the studied traits and they could both especially in cases with complexity of computations. Epigenetic Trend (EPG) with parities, the highest for Litter Size traits response was to the first parity. LS showed that epigenetic trend with Year-season (Y-S) effects gave better positive trends during good environmental circumstances and genetic expression could possibly change one environmental circumstance to another. Conclusively, this study recommends providing the acclimated New Zealand rabbits in Egypt more consideration and genetic improvement through selection to reach the performance of the standard breed due to the significant amounts of the trait's non-additional genetic component.