his research work was designed to study early feed restriction effects on broiler production during Egyptian summer. One hundred ninety eight unsexed Cobb-500 broiler chickens were divided to six experimental treatments with three equal replications. All chicks were free fed starter diet during the first week. In the second week, the chicks in the control group were fed the starter diet ad libitum, but feed intake of the other experimental groups were restricted at levels of 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40%, respectively from the feed intake of the control group. At 2 weeks of age, one bird from each replicate was sacrificed to obtain blood samples. All the experimental chicks were free fed basal grower diet from 14 to 42 days-old. Broiler performance was evaluated by live weight, feed consumed and feed conversion. Carcass parameters and some blood constituents were also measured. The current results showed that feed restriction improved the marketing live body weight, feed utilization and economical efficiency of treated broiler chicks, with no negative effect on either carcass traits or blood parameters. It could be concluded that early feed restriction during the second week of life up to 35% of ad libitum feeding can enhance the marketing weight and improve the feed conversion of broilers as compared to the control treatment under summer conditions in Egypt.

In factorial arrangement of treatments (2×4), an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of stocking density and vitamin C, vitamin E and their combination on growth performance of Californian rabbits during summer season (high ambient temperature of 36.4 • C and maximum relative humidity of 97%). Sixty unsexed 7-week-old rabbits were distributed into 8 groups of three replications each. The rabbits were kept in battery cages at two stocking densities; 10 or 15 rabbits/m 2 and were fed on four experimental diets; first group was fed the control diet. The other three experimental diets were formulated to contain vitamin C (0.5 g/kg diet), vitamin E (0.25 g/kg diet) or both at the same suggested levels. Growth trial lasted for 7 weeks. The tested criteria included live body weight, live weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, some blood metabolites and carcass characteristics. Low stocking density increased significantly final live weight, daily weight gain and feed intake. The concurrent administration of vitamin C and vitamin E significantly improved the final body weight, daily gain and feed conversion ratio of rabbits. However, stocking density did not significantly affect feed conversion, carcass traits or plasma blood parameters. The single or combined addition of vitamins C and E significantly increased the percentages of carcass yield and total edible parts. A significant reduction was observed in plasma albumin level due to added dietary vitamin E. The effect of interaction between added dietary vitamins and cage density did not significantly affect most of variables examined in the present study. It can be concluded that stocking density of 10 rabbits/m 2 or combined addition of dietary vitamins C (0.5g/kg diet) and E (250 mg/kg diet) may improve rabbit performance during summer season.

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The current study was designed to evaluate the effect feeding weaning rabbits sugar beet tops (SBT) with prebiotic on digestibility of nutrients and caecal microbial activity, volatile fatty acids estimation and organs histology. Fifty four 6-week-old unsexed weaning NZW rabbits were randomly distributed in a factorial (3 × 2) design to six equal groups. Sugar beet tops (SBT) was used at levels 0.0, 20 or 30% of the diet instead of the percent of alfalfa hay in the control diet in presence of 1.0 g/kg diet or absence of prebiotic (Perfect). Digestibility coefficients of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE) and NFE of 12-week old NZW rabbits were improved by feeding SBT-containing diets. Dietary SBT level had no significant effect on pH value, TVFA,s and NH 3 -N values for caecum content of 12 weeks old NZW rabbits, however, total bacteria, E. coli and lactobacillus counts were significantly affected. Feeding SBT-containing diets did not alter plasma concentrations of AST and ALT of 12-week-old rabbits. Dietary prebiotic had a positive effect on the digestibility coefficients of DM, OM, CP, EE, CF and NFE of growing rabbits. Added prebiotic had a positive effect on caecal fermentative activities and caecal microbial activity of growing rabbits. The pH value, ammonia-N level, total bacteria and lactobacillus counts of rabbits fed prebiotic-supplemented diets were significantly higher but E. coli count was reduced as compared to control ones. This study concluded that sugar beet tops can be safely used in rabbit diets up to 30% instead of alfalfa hay.

The current study was conducted to investigate the effect of β-Pro (probiotic-enzymes preparation) supplementation to 54 weaned rabbits (6-week-old with an average weight of 600 g) stocked at different stocking densities on some growth performance traits, carcass measurements, some blood parameters and cecal micoflora under heat stress. A factorial design arrangement with 2 diets (basal diet and basal diet + 0.2 g β-Pro/Kg from 6 to 14 weeks of age) and 3 stocking densities [2, 3 and 4 rabbits/cage (45  45  35 cm), equivalent to 10, 15 and 20 rabbits/m 2 ] during summer season from June to August. The results showed that, dietary inclusion of β-Pro achieved significant (P ≤ 0.05) improvements of marketing live weight and daily weight gain with no influences on feed intake, feed conversion ratio, blood variables or carcass characteristics of rabbits during the experimental period from 6 to 14 weeks of age. The incorporation of β-Pro dietary also resulted in significantly higher (P ˂ 0.01) cecal colonization of beneficial bacteria like lactobacilli, and a significant lower (P ˂ 0.05) of viable coliform counts with no changes of clostridia. The low stocking density of 2 rabbits/cage (10 rabbits/m 2) revealed higher (P < 0.01) marketing live weight, daily weight gain and feed consumption when compared with higher densities. Interactions between stocking density and dietary β-Pro supplementation exhibited significant (P ˂ 0.05) changes in daily weight gain, globulin, HDL, total bacterial, coliform and lactobacilli counts, with no influences on other evaluated measurements. Conclusively, the present study concluded that lower cage density (10 rabbits/m 2) with probiotics-enzymes inclusion is recommended for the post-weaning period of rabbits under hot environmental conditions.

The performance of hybrid chickens fed plant-protein diets was compared to those fed diets supplemented with Ziziphus, Jatropha, white berry, black berry and pomegranate leaves extracted meal at level of (0.5 g/kg) or Vit. E. Two hundred and forty, 2 weeks-old unsexed Arbor acres chicks were used. A total number of 30 chicks were allocated for each treatment, divided into 3 replicates (10 birds/each) and housed in broiler cages. The chicks were fed the experimental grower diets from 2 to 6 weeks of age during summer season. All chicks were managed in similar fashion and had free access to feed and water throughout grower period. Measurements include were growth performance, carcass quality, digestibility and some plasma constituents.Results obtained showed that: growth performance criteria were positively (P ≤ 0.05) affected by dietary supplementation with Ziziphus, Jatropha, white berry, black berry and pomegranate leaves extracted meal in the diet during the whole growing period. Digestible coefficients of CP, EE, NFE and ash retention were increased significantly (p ≤ 0.05) by dietary additions. Broilers fed the herb leaves extract-supplemented diet had significantly higher HDL, SOD, urea, ALT and creatinine levels than positive or negative control. This indicates better liver function as also appears from the normal architecture with a normal size central vein (CV) and several homogenous masses of liver cords with normal hepatocytes (h) and few fatty cirrhotic areas (f). It can be concluded that phytogenic extracted meals have a beneficial effect on growth performance and liver histology especially in summer season.

A study was performed to investigate the effect of dietary protein level and addition of yeast or exogenous enzymes on growth performance and carcass characteristics of Japanese quail. A factorial completely randomized design (3×3), three dietary protein levels (24, 21.6 and 19.2%) without or with two feed additives was used. Five hundred and forty quails were randomly divided into nine groups, kept in cages, fed their respective experimental diets and managed similarly from 2 to 6 weeks of age. The obtained results illustrated that growth performance of quails did not affected by dietary protein level. Quails fed enzyme-enriched diets achieved better feed conversion than the control birds. Feeding yeast-supplemented diets improved the final body weight and weight gain of quails compared with the control birds. Economic efficiency of feeding (EEF) and carcass characteristics were not influenced by dietary protein level, feed additives and their interaction. In conclusion, decreasing dietary CP level from 24 to 19.2% does not compromise the growth performance, economic efficiency or carcass traits of quails. Dietary yeast supplementation has a beneficial effect on growth performance of quails, regardless of dietary CP level.

This study was undertaken to investigate stocking density (SD) and nutrient density (ND) effects on productive performance, egg quality, carcass characteristics, and blood biochemical parameters of Japanese quails. Two hundred eighty-eight quails were randomly divided to 6 experimental groups (each with 4 replications) and kept at three rates of cage SD (277.8, 208.3 and 166.7 cm 2 /bird). Three of these groups were fed on a normal nutrient density diet and the second three groups were fed on a high nutrient density diet (105% of the recommended nutrient requirements for laying quails) and managed similarly from 7 to 19 weeks of age. Carcass characteristics and most blood parameters, certain criteria of productive performance of quails were not affected by SD and ND. Increasing SD impaired EPR, DFI, and DEM of quails. However, increasing ND improved EPR, DFI and DEM but had no effect on all criteria of egg quality. Most egg quality traits were not affected by SD, while YI was deteriorated and ST improved with increasing SD. There were inconsistent differences in serum levels of MDA and COR, but P level increased due to increasing SD. As ND increased serum LDL-C concentration of quails increased while level of uric acid decreased. The SD by ND interactions insignificantly affected all estimated criteria of quail hens. Conclusively, an optimal SD for laying quails is suggested to be 277.8 cm 2 /hen for normal productive performance, egg quality and blood parameters. Increasing ND can alleviate the negative effects of high SD on laying performance of quails.