Veterinary Research Forum

Abstract Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) is a popular experimental animal model in scientific research. The present study investigated the effects of dietary multiple enzyme supplementation on growth performance, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility and small intestinal histomorphology in quails fed diets based on wheat and soya bean meal. A total number of 192 1-day-old quails were assigned to three treatments with 16 replicates in each and four quails per replicate for 38 days.  The control group received a basal diet, and the treatment groups received a basal diet with 0.10 or 0.20% multi-enzyme, respectively. Growth performance parameters, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility and small intestinal histomorphology in quails were evaluated. Dietary supplementation of multi-enzymes to diet significantly increased body weight gain and improved the feed conversion rate. Moreover, quails fed with 0.10 or 0.20% multi-enzymes showed better ash digestibility coefficients and apparent metabolizable energy coefficients than the control quails. Furthermore, quails fed on a diet containing 0.20% multi-enzyme had the highest crude fiber digestibility. The villi length and the villi length/crypt depth ratio of the duodenum were significantly increased and the crypt depth was decreased in quails-fed diets supplemented with both multi-enzyme levels. However, feed consumption, carcass yield, carcass weight, heart weight, gizzard weight, liver weight and total intestine weights were not affected by treatments. In conclusion, our results showed that dietary supplementation of multi-enzymes to a wheat and soybean meal-based diet enhanced the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of quails.

Abstract The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of organic acids and phytase enzyme supplementation on performance and intestinal histomorphology of broilers. The experiment was done in a factorial arrangement 2 × 2 × 2 based on completely randomized design with eight treatments, five replicates with 12 chicks in each until 42 days of age. Diets included natural vinegar (0 and 2%), citric acid (CA; 0.00 and 1.00%) and phytase enzyme (PHY; 0.00 and 500 FTU phytase per kg of feed). One bird from each treatment replicate was randomly selected and slaughtered to evaluate the small intestinal morphology on 42 days of age. Analysis of results showed that vinegar increased feed consumption and body weight gain in total experimental period (p ˂ 0.05), while CA significantly decreased feed consumption on 0-14 days of age (p ˂ 0.05). No effect was observed on performance in interaction of organic acids together and with PHY group (p > 0.05). In duodenum CA increased the villusheight and width (p ˂ 0.05) and PHY enzyme increased villuswidth (p ˂ 0.05) and decreased crypt depth (p ˂ 0.05). On the other hand, CA along with PHY significantly decreased crypt depth (p ˂ 0.05). In jejunum PHY alone and in combination with vinegar increased the goblet cells numbers (p ˂ 0.05), whereas vinegar significantly increased the goblet cells numbers in ileum (p ˂ 0.05). The muscular thickness in duodenum, jejunum, and ileum was not affected among different treatment groups. The results showed that supplementation of organic acids and phytase together in this experiment, with no negative effects on each other, improved their effects on some parameters.