Department of Animal Production and Breeding, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, Al-Qassim 51452, Saudi Arabia; Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Poultry Production, Ain Shams University, Hadayek Shoubra 11241, Cairo, Egypt.
Department of Animal Production and Breeding, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, Al-Qassim 51452, Saudi Arabia.
Poult Sci. 2020 Feb;99(2):879-885. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2019.09.001. Epub 2019 Dec 12.
The effect of dietary supplementation of Eucalyptus leaves (EL) powder on productive performance and immune response in 2 varieties of Japanese quail was investigated. A total of 180 twelve-week-old laying Japanese quails from 2 color varieties (gray and white) were randomly assigned and distributed according to a completely randomized design in a 3 × 2 factorial arrangement (dietary treatment × variety) forming 6 subgroups (30 each). EL were mixed with the diet in 3 levels (0, 0.1, and 0.2%). Each hen was individually housed in a wire cage of laying batteries and kept in an open house under hot environmental temperature. Productive traits were determined for an experimental period of 6 wk. Egg quality, carcass traits, blood parameters, and immune response were also determined. The results indicated that the productive traits were not significantly affected by EL supplementation. Shell quality and broken eggs significantly improved in quails fed a diet containing EL compared with those in the control. The quails fed a diet supplemented with 0.1% EL exhibited significantly higher cellular mediated and humoral immune responses than those in the other treatment groups. Glutathione peroxidase activity tended to be significantly increased by the dietary administration of EL at the level of 0.2%. Concerning quail varieties, it could be noticed that the gray quails exhibited higher productive performance, shell quality, and cellular immunity than the white counterparts. It could be concluded that supplementing a diet with 0.1 EL as a natural feed additive greatly enhances eggshell quality and immunocompetence and reduces number of broken eggs of Japanese quails raised under high environmental temperature.
研究了在 2 个日本鹌鹑品种中添加桉树叶（EL）粉对生产性能和免疫反应的影响。将 180 只 12 周龄的产蛋日本鹌鹑分为 2 个颜色品种（灰色和白色），并根据完全随机设计分为 3 个×2 因子设计（饮食处理×品种），形成 6 个亚组（每组 30 只）。EL 以 3 个水平（0、0.1 和 0.2%）与饲料混合。每只母鸡单独饲养在产蛋电池的金属丝笼中，并在炎热的环境温度下保持开放房屋。进行了为期 6 周的实验期以确定生产特性。还确定了鸡蛋质量、屠体特性、血液参数和免疫反应。结果表明，EL 补充剂对生产特性没有显著影响。与对照组相比，饲喂含 EL 的日粮的鹌鹑的蛋壳质量和破蛋率明显提高。与其他处理组相比，饲喂添加 0.1% EL 的日粮的鹌鹑表现出更高的细胞介导和体液免疫反应。谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶活性在日粮中添加 EL 至 0.2% 时趋于显著增加。关于鹌鹑品种，可以注意到灰色鹌鹑比白色鹌鹑表现出更高的生产性能、蛋壳质量和细胞免疫力。可以得出结论，在高温环境下饲养日本鹌鹑时，日粮中添加 0.1% EL 作为天然饲料添加剂可大大提高蛋壳质量和免疫能力，减少破蛋数量。
