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 promotersused as alternatives to commercial antibiotics. this experiment was conductedto investigate the effects of spice and herbal plant products on the growth,carcass qualities, biochemical, microbial count and immune response factorsin japanese quail meat. a total of 360 fourteen-day-old japanese quails femalewere 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 ofherbal products. from the results of this study, it was concluded that thedietary t. copticum, m. hortensis and s. lavandulifolia had no significant effecton live weight of quail (p < 0.05). the results of this study demonstrated thatthe use of z. officinale and m. hortensis increased the percentage of organsweight and z. officinale increased water holding capacity, moisture (p < 0.05).the results of the present study revealed a significant effect of t. copticumherbal plant supplements on decreasing total bacterial counts, total coliformcount, 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% werefound to increase the titres of avian influenza, and m. hortensis-0.2%increased the titres of newcastle disease antigens. the study also demonstrateda 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.