Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of the dietary probiotic Bacillus subtilis and propionic acid on growth performance, microflora microbial count, some hematological, biochemical, immune response parameters and the health status of gastrointestinal tract tissues in quail. In a completely randomized design, 200 one-day old Japanese quail chicks were divided into 4 groups (each group consists of 50) and reared in 20 cages of 10 birds each and caged for 35 days. Dietary treatments consisted of a control diet without any additives, the control diet + 1 g/kg probiotic, the control diet + 2 g/kg probiotic and the control diet +1 g/kg propionic acid. On the day 35, body weight gain and feed intake of chicks were calculated. On the same day, the quails from each cage were bled to determine the hematological, biochemical and immunological parameters. Feed conversion ratio for birds fed a diet of probiotic and propionic acid differed (p 0.05). There were significant differences in RBCs, WBCs, hemoglobin, lymphocytes, monocytes, heterophils in treated groups specially in the group fed 2g/kg feed probiotic Bacillus subtilis and the group fed 1g/kg feed propionic acid compared to those in the control group. Also, there was a significant increase in immune parameters in birds received dietary treatments compared to those in the control group. Finally, the histological structure of gastrointestinal tract was highly improved and the health status was better in birds fed probiotic and propionic acid feed additives than those in the group receiving the control diet. In conclusion, based on the results of the experiment, probiotic and propionic acid have the potential to be used as feed additives in quail chicks diets.
Key words: Key words: quail chicks, probiotic, propionic acid, hematological, biochemical, immunological response, growth performance.
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