Assessment of Feeding Date Palm Pollen and Bee Pollen on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Intestinal Development and Microbiota of Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica) | ||||
| Assiut Journal of Agricultural Sciences | ||||
| Volume 55, Issue 1, January 2024, Page 181-196 PDF (784.4 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ajas.2024.234549.1290 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
Mariam A. ELDeeb; Mahmoud A. Abdelnabi; Ali Elsayed Galal; Warda AbdelKareem 
| ||||
| Department of Poultry Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71516, Egypt. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| This study aimed to assess the effect of dietary supplementation of date palm pollen (DPP) and bee pollen (BP) on growth performance, carcass characteristics, some hematological blood parameters, intestinal morphology, and intestinal microbiota of Japanese quail during the growing period (7- 42 days). A total of 250, 7-day-old, Japanese quail chicks were distributed into 5 dietary treatments (45 birds/ treatment, with 3 replicates 15 birds each). The chicks were allotted to treatment groups as follows: T1: fed basal diet without any supplementation (control), T2 and T3 fed basal diet plus 0.6 or 1.2 g DPP/kg diet, and T4 and T5 fed basal diet plus 0.5 or 1.0 g BP /kg diet. Results indicated no differences in either total average BW or daily BWG, however, average daily BWG during week 6 revealed superiority due to feed additives T3, T4 and T5 (P≤0.05) compared to the control group (4.04, 3.67, and 3.88 vs. 2.7g, respectively). Histological examination of the duodenum showed a considerable upgrade (P≤0.05) in villi heights in T2, T3, and T5 compared to the control group. Lactobacillus counts in the ileum and cecal contents (log10 CFU/g) were increased (P≤ 0.05) in birds fed on DPP at a level of 0.6 g/ kg diet. Blood concentration levels of ALT and AST enzymes were not affected by treatment accenting no harmful effect on liver function. In conclusion, the result suggests that dietary supplements of either DPP or BP could be incorporated into the quail diet as feed additives to boost growth performance. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Quail; Diet; DPP; BP; Performance; Growth | ||||
|
Statistics Article View: 101 PDF Download: 98 |
||||
