*Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Islamic Azad University,
Shahrekord Branch, Iran
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This study was conducted
on Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica) to evaluate the effects of
dietary supplementation of two medicinal plants (Cinnamomum
zeylanicum blume
and Thymus vulgaris) on the performance and egg quality
parameters. One hundred C. japonica quail, 42 days old, were
randomly allocated to five treatments with five replicates of four birds
each (three females and one male). The experiment lasted for 63 days
until the quails reached to 105 days of age. Birds were assigned to the
basal diet (control) which was supplemented with 1.0% thymus powder
(T2), 2.0% thymus powder (T3), 1.0% cinnamon powder (T4) and 2.0%
cinnamon powder (T5), respectively. In this experiment, performance
parameters (live weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR) egg
production,
and egg quality parameters (egg weight, eggshell weight, yolk
weight, albumin weight, eggshell thickness and some of egg mineral
content) were determined. The results showed that, egg production didn’t
differ among the treatments (P>0.05), while live weight and feed intake
were affected significantly by experimental treatments (P<0.05).
Moreover feed conversion ratio values were affected positively by thymus
powder supplementation to the diets. Also, these results indicated that
experimental treatments significantly improved egg quality parameters in
Japanese quail (P<0.05) except for yolk weight. Thymus and cinnamon
supplementation to the diet increased the egg mineral content (Fe, Zn,
Cu) compared to the control (P<0.05). In conclusion, dietary inclusion
of thymus and cinnamon powder may have beneficial effects on performance
of Japanese quail and their egg quality parameters.
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