Evaluation of the Use of Some Medicinal Plants as Diet Additive on Carcass Quality, Microbial Count and Immune Responses in Japanese Quail

Herbal plant supplements are one of the important natural growth promoters used as alternatives to commercial antibiotics. This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of spice and Herbal plant products on the growth, carcass qualities, biochemical, Microbial Count and immune response factors in Japanese quail meat. A total of 360 fourteen-day-old Japanese quails female were randomly distributed into 9 groups with 4 replicates (10 quail/rep). Treatments included two levels (0.1 and 0.2%) of each herbal plant (Trachyspermum copticum, Majorana hortensis, Stachys lavandulifolia, Zingiber officinale) product and a control group that received a diet free of herbal products. From the results of this study, it was concluded that the dietary T. copticum, M. hortensis and S. lavandulifolia had no significant effect on live weight of Quail (P < 0.05). The results of this study demonstrated that the use of Z. officinale and M. hortensis increased the percentage of organs weight and Z. officinale increased water holding capacity, moisture (P < 0.05). The results of the present study revealed a significant effect of T. copticum herbal plant supplements on decreasing Total Bacterial Counts, Total coliform count, Triglyceride, cholesterol, pH and increasing Phosphorus and Calcium. In this experiment, S. lavandulifolia increased Ash and Dry matter (P < 0.05), while, T. copticum-0.2%, Z. officinale-0.2% and S. lavandulifolia-0.2% were found to increase the titres of Avian Influenza, and M. hortensis-0.2% increased the titres of Newcastle disease antigens. The study also demonstrated a prominent preservative effect of T. copticum, S. lavandulifolia, Z. officinale, M. hortensis and hence, T. copticum, S. lavandulifolia, Z. officinale and M. hortensis can be considered as a natural food additive in Quail and Quailproducts.