Effects of Different Anti-Stressors on Growth, Serum Chemistry and Meat Quality Attributes of Japanese Quail

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of different anti-stressors on growth performance, carcass traits, bloodchemistry and meat quality attributes of broiler Japanese quail. For this purpose, a total of 1,875 quail chicks were procured and arranged according to completely randomized design, birds were divided into 5 treatment groups having 5 replicates of 75 birds each. The treatments consisted of four anti-stressors i.e., synthetic anti-stressors (Vitamin C and Betaine) and natural anti-stressors (Turmeric and Chia Seed) along with a control group. Bird's diets were supplemented with vitamin C, betaine, turmeric and chia seed @ 600 mg/kg, 700 mg /kg, 300 mg/kg and 7,000 mg/kg, respectively. After four weeks, 10 birds per treatment were slaughtered (Halal method), de-feathered, eviscerated and their carcass traits, serum chemistry and meat quality attributes were calculated. Birds supplemented with betaine revealed significantly (p≤0.05) lower feed intake, glucose, cholesterol, H:L ratio, better weight gain, times of gain, FCR and highest anti-oxidant assay and total viable count. However, carcass traits, processing traits and blood cortisol level did not differ (p>0.05) among the treatment groups. In conclusion, addition of antistressors (especially betaine) in the diet of growing Japanese quail had positive influence on growth and serum chemistry. IntRoduCtIon Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) were initially domesticated as pet song birds or as game birds then with time they were converted into valuable meat type birds (Kayang et al., 2004). Japanese quail is a domestic bird of economic importance for commercial meat production and lay unique flavor eggs (Mahmoud El-Tarabany, 2016). Japanese quail are the best meat producers among all the quails present in the world with an average adult live weight at four weeks of age of 200 grams (Ahmad, 2016). Japanese quails are excellent laboratory animals used for research purposes as they have low maintenance cost, short generation interval (3-4 generation per year), hardy, resist disease, high egg production and require lower space and equipment utility (Minvielle, 2004). Role of environment cannot be denied as commercial and intensive poultry production is associated with various stresses leading to the decrease of productive and reproductive performance of growing chickens, parent birds, and layers (Surai & Fisinin, 2016). Japanese quails are also affected by various environmental and management stresses that affect their productivity during humid hot season (Bello & Sulaiman, 2016). Pakistan is located in geographical regions of southwestern Asia and situated in both northern and eastern hemisphere, where, July and August are considered to be humid hot months (Daghir, 2009). During these months the birds experience a series of stresses, among these eRBCA-2019-0734

Impact of dietary cold-pressed chia oil on growth, blood chemistry, haematology, immunity and antioxidant status of growing Japanese quail

“…In this study, chia oil supplementation reduced feed intake, improved body weight, body weight gain, and FCR, supporting the previous findings of Asad et al (2019) and Rasul et al (2019), who reported that chia seed increased the body weight and improved the FCR in broilers. This improvement may be due to several factors, such as; a) presence of a sufficient quantity of polyphenolic compounds in chia (caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, kaemperol, myricetin and quercetin) which are potent antioxidants that can reduce the production of free radicals in the body, inhibit peroxidation of fats and have much stronger antioxidant activities than vitamin C, vitamin E and ferulic acid, b) presence of large amounts of vitamins (A, C and E) and minerals (sodium, potassium and chloride) in chia oil that might play a role in stress reduction, c) increased digestive secretion (bile and mucus) and stimulation of enzymatic activities, d) improved digestive tract motility, food taste, and immunity and antimicrobial status, e) increased trypsin, amylase and jejunal chyme secretion, f) diminished bacterial adherence (i.e.…”

“…The results on body weight obtained in this study were comparable to those reported by Nasr et al (2017), who stated that quail body weight at 6 weeks of age ranges from 175 to 205 g. Moreover, the FCR of the group fed the normal basal diet was within the normal reported range of 2.87-3.93 g feed/g gain (Rasul et al 2019;Nasr et al 2019). Chia oil supplementation not only improved the FCR, confirming the results of Rasul et al (2019), who reported that chia seed supplementation improved the FCR by 4.74%, but also reduced the feed consumption, which was comparable to the findings of Abbasi and Samadi (2014) and Mendonça et al (2020) who observed a reduction in feed intake (4% and 9.31) on chia supplementation, respectively. The feed intake in this study was similar to that reported in Abdelhady et al (2018).…”

“…The carcase yield percentage of Japanese quail is affected by slaughter age, breed, line and sex of quails (Abou-Kassem et al 2019;Mohamed et al 2019;. Our results regarding the percentage liver weight were almost similar to the findings (2.35-2.48%) of Rasul et al (2019); however, the percentage gizzard and heart weights were found to be higher in this study, whereas the percentage giblet weight was comparable to the range (4.63-7.52%) reported by Abdelhady et al (2018).…”

“…However, it was lower than that reported by Nasr et al (2017). Furthermore, Rasul et al (2019) reported that chia supplementation had no significant impact on the dressing percentage (56.94% in basal diet vs. 57.86% in chia supplemented diet). The carcase yield percentage of Japanese quail is affected by slaughter age, breed, line and sex of quails (Abou-Kassem et al 2019;Mohamed et al 2019;.…”

Association Analysis Between Polymorphism of Gonadotrophin Releasing Hormone Genes and Growth Traits of Quail (Coturnix Coturnix)

“…Quail is a suitable experimental animal in multiple subjects, such as poultry propagation, histology, nutriology, hemadenology, embryology, physiology and pharmacology (Bai et al, 2016a(Bai et al, , 2016b(Bai et al, , 2016c(Bai et al, , 2020. Rasul et al (2019) analyzed the effects of different anti stress agents on the growth and meat quality of Japanese quail. Li et al (2019) indicated that the black plumage color might be caused by increased production of MC1R and the white plumage color might be caused by increased production of ASIP in Japanese quail.…”