Reproductive performance of breeder quails fed diets supplemented with L‐cysteine‐coated iron oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of L-cysteine-coated iron oxide nanoparticles on reproductive performance in breeder quails. The five treatment diets consisted of (i) negative control diet not supplemented with iron, (ii) positive control diet supplemented with 60 mg/kg of Fe O and (iii) experimental diets supplemented with 0.6, 6 and 60 mg/kg of L-cysteine-coated iron oxide nanoparticles. A total of 100 seven-day-old quail chicks were weighed and randomly placed to five groups of five replicate cages. Four quails (one male and three females) were raised in each cage (50 × 15 × 17 cm). Egg production, feed consumption and egg weight were recorded daily and calculated on a hen per day basis. Egg components, fertility, hatchability and day-old chicks hatched from their eggs were measured at the end of the experiment. The percentage of egg production and egg mass of the 6 mg/kg Fe O -Cys NPs group were significantly higher than those of the control groups. Throughout the experimental period, the highest weekly egg weight was recorded for the 60 mg/kg Fe O -Cys NPs group. Fertility was improved by diet supplemented with iron, both FeSO and Fe O -Cys NPs. The breeder fed Fe O -Cys NPs had the highest day-old chicks weight. The results of this study showed that Fe O nanoparticles that were coated by L-cysteine could improve availability and utilization of iron in diet. Finally, it was proposed that Fe O -Cys NPs could be used as feed additives in quails.

Nutritional requirements of meat-type and egg-type ducks: what do we know?

“…Iron (Fe) is required to produce hemoglobin and to activate several enzymes, such as succinate dehydrogenase, catalase, and cytochrome c oxidase [ 77 ]. Insufficient Fe in the diet can impair body weight gains, feed consumption, FCR, and elevate mortality in broiler chickens [ 78 ], as well as reducing egg production, egg weight, and fertility rates in broiler and quail breeders [ 79 , 80 ]. Dietary supplementation with Fe can increase growth rate, thymus weight, activity of antioxidant enzymes [ 81 ], and cell-mediated responses in broilers [ 82 ].…”

Effect of replacing dietary FeSO4 with cysteine-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles on quails

“…But some investigations showed the cytotoxic effects of iron oxide nanoparticles (Kouchesfehami et al 2013;Di Bona et al 2015). In order to decrease toxicity effects of nanoparticles in biological systems, coating of nanoparticles surface with albumin, dextran (Berry et al 2003), polyethylene glycol (Gupta and Curtis 2004), methionine hydroxy (Saki et al 2014) and cysteine (Mohammadi et al 2017) was used as a way to increase the effectiveness of these particles. The intestinal absorption of the organic minerals was more than inorganic oxide Table 3.…”

The negative impact of the environment on methylation/epigenetic marking in gametes and embryos: A plea for action to protect the fertility of future generations

“…NPs can reach the ovaries and also cross the blood–testis and placental barrier (Taylor et al, ). Transplacental transfer has been described with toxicity to offspring reported in animal models (Hong, Zhou, Zhao, Sheng, & Wang, ; Mohammadi, Farzinpour, & Vaziry, ): nano‐TiO 2 (nanosized titan dioxide) can cross the blood‐fetal barrier and placental barrier, delay the development of fetal mice, and induce skeletal malformation. Some of these TiO 2 are used as “orange” dyes in food.…”