| The Impact of Dietary Thyme and Turmeric Essential Oils on Behavior, Performance, Carcass Traits and Meat Quality of Japanese quails | ||
| Zagazig Veterinary Journal | ||
| Volume 53, Issue 3, September 2025, Pages 312-328 PDF (432.41 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/zvjz.2025.395738.1284 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Heba S.A. Gharib; Aya S. Gad* ; Hesham H. Mohammed; Mohamed Y.I. Youssef; Al Sadik K.Y. Saleem; Azhar F Abdel Fattah; Enas N. Said; Shereen E.L. Abdel-Hamid; Fayza A. Ahmed; Asmaa I Abdelaty | ||
| Department of behaviour and management of animal, poultry and aquatics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Zagazig University, P.O. Box 44511, Zagazig, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This study investigated the impacts of supplementing the diet with thyme (Thymus vulgaris) and turmeric (curcuma longa) essential oils on behavior, performance, carcass traits and meat characteristics of Japanese quails. One hundred ninety-two quail chicks at one-day old were reared for one week for adaptation and then randomly divided into 4nutritional treatments, each with 3 replicates (16 birds per replicate). Quails in the untreated group (G1) fed a standard diet without essential oil supplementation, the second group (G2) fed a standard diet supplemented with 0.2% thyme essential oil, the third group (G3) fed a standard diet supplemented with 0.3% turmeric essential oil and the fourth group (G4) fed a standard diet supplemented with mixture of 0.075% thyme and 0.125% turmeric oils. The experiment lasted for 5 weeks. A focal sample technique was used to report the quail’s behavior twice daily (once at the start of the day between 7 and 10 AM. and the other in the afternoon between 3 and 5 PM.) for 20 min per time for each replicate. Moreover, growth performance, meat quality and carcass traits were evaluated. The results revealed that Supplementing the diet with thyme and turmeric essential oils induced significant improvements in ingestive and comfort behaviors, a reduction in feed intake, improved body weight gain, feed efficiency and enhanced carcass traits and meat quality in Japanese quails. Throughout the experiment, Japanese quails of G4 had the best performance. In summary, dietary supplementation of 0.075% thyme and 0.125% turmeric essential oils, enhanced Japanese quail growth performance, carcass traits, meat quality, while also reducing feed consumption. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Behavior; Quail; Thyme; Turmeric; essential oils | ||
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