Aslan Sultan, Simsek Ülkü Gülcihan, Eroğlu Mehmet, İflazoğlu Mutlu Seda
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Dicle University, Diyarbakır, Türkiye.
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Firat University, Elazığ, Türkiye.
Vet Med Sci. 2025 Sep;11(5):e70513. doi: 10.1002/vms3.70513.
Boric acid is an important alternative to antibiotics due to its positive effects on the immune system, endocrine system, lipid metabolism, mineral metabolism and energy metabolism. Different doses of boric acid supplemented to diet and water may influence performance, hatchability and intestinal bacterial load in Japanese quails with various feather colours.
The aim of the study was to determine the effects of different doses of boric acid, supplemented in feed and water, on performance, hatchability and intestinal bacterial load in Japanese quails with different feather colours.
A completely randomized 5 × 4 factorial design was implemented, consisting of five dietary treatments and four feather colour groups. The dietary treatments were control (basal diet without supplementation), F100 (100 mg/kg boric acid added to feed), F300 (300 mg/kg boric acid in feed), W100 (100 mg/L boric acid added to drinking water) and W300 (300 mg/L boric acid in water). A total of 300 Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) with different feather colour genotypes-yellow (Y), white (W), grey (G) and black (B)-served as the experimental subjects. Each treatment group included 60 quails, with 15 individuals from each feather colour and experiment lasted for 90 days.
Supplementation of boric acid to feed and water did not affect egg production, feed consumption, feed conversion rate, viability or water consumption (p > 0.05). In the F300 group, hatchability from set eggs (p < 0.05) and from fertile eggs (p < 0.01) increased, whereas embryo mortality decreased significantly (p < 0.01). Compared to the control, total lactic acid bacteria count increased and coliform bacteria count decreased significantly in boric acid-supplemented groups (F300, W100 and W300) (p < 0.001). Egg production, feed conversion rate, viability, hatchability and intestinal bacterial load were similar among different feather colour varieties (p > 0.05). Feed consumption was highest in yellow and grey genotypes (p < 0.001).
Boric acid can be used as a feed supplementation with positive effects on hatchability performance and intestinal health. Quail genotypes were generally similar in terms of the examined features.
硼酸对免疫系统、内分泌系统、脂质代谢、矿物质代谢和能量代谢具有积极作用，是抗生素的重要替代品。在日粮和饮水中添加不同剂量的硼酸可能会影响不同羽色日本鹌鹑的生产性能、孵化率和肠道细菌载量。
本研究旨在确定在饲料和饮水中添加不同剂量硼酸对不同羽色日本鹌鹑生产性能、孵化率和肠道细菌载量的影响。
采用完全随机5×4析因设计，包括五种日粮处理和四个羽色组。日粮处理分别为对照组（不添加硼酸的基础日粮）、F100（在饲料中添加100mg/kg硼酸）、F300（在饲料中添加300mg/kg硼酸）、W100（在饮水中添加100mg/L硼酸）和W300（在饮水中添加300mg/L硼酸）。总共300只具有不同羽色基因型（黄色（Y）、白色（W）、灰色（G）和黑色（B））的日本鹌鹑（日本鹌鹑）作为实验对象。每个处理组包括60只鹌鹑，每种羽色有15只，实验持续90天。
在饲料和饮水中添加硼酸对产蛋量、采食量、饲料转化率、成活率或饮水量没有影响（p>0.05）。在F300组中，入孵蛋孵化率（p<0.05）和受精蛋孵化率（p<0.01）提高，胚胎死亡率显著降低（p<0.01）。与对照组相比，添加硼酸的组（F300、W100和W300）总乳酸菌数增加，大肠菌群数显著减少（p<0.001）。不同羽色品种间的产蛋量、饲料转化率、成活率、孵化率和肠道细菌载量相似（p>0.05）。黄色和灰色基因型的采食量最高（p<0.001）。
硼酸可作为饲料添加剂，对孵化性能和肠道健康有积极影响。鹌鹑基因型在所检测的特征方面总体相似。
