Background: Many studies mentioned that using medicinal herbs and plants as feed additives to ruminants seems to be a recent trend depending on the availability and their cost but using them with monogastric animals and birds, as pharmaceutical tool, is available. As an example, the importance of garlic or onion in recent years, thanks to a wide range of useful properties, has been increasingly used as an additive in nutrition and protection of farm animals. Their action was manifested in a reduced expanding range of pathogenic microorganisms in the digestive tract, which resulted in the rapid growth of poultry, efficient digestion, and increased immunity and health of poultry. Methods: One hundred and eight 30-week-old laying hens were randomly divided into six dietary treatment groups {G 1 control, G 2 contained 0.5% garlic powder (GP), G 3 contained 1% GP, G 4 contained 1% onion powder (OP), G 5 contained 1% OP + 0.5% GP, and G 6 contained 1% OP + 1% GP}. Each group included 18 hens in six replicates (3 birds/each). So, this work carried out to investigate the impact of incorporating garlic powder (GP) and/or onion powder (OP) in laying hens' diets on their performance, egg quality, and some blood constituents. Results: Incorporating GP, OP, and the mixture of them in laying hen diets had no significant effect on the average egg weight and consumption/hen/day throughout the three stages of egg collection, but had a significant improvement in the number of eggs/hen, percentage of egg production, egg mass/hen, and feed conversion. Inclusion of GP, OP, or the mixture of them in laying hen diets had no significant effect on the shape index, Haugh unit, albumin, and shell percentages; also, an insignificant increase for shell thickness was observed, but egg weight increases (P < 0.05). Incorporation of GP, OP, and the mixture of them significantly decreased (P < 0.05) total cholesterol concentration. Also, an inclusion of 0.5% GP, 1% GP, and 1% OP + 1% GP decreased (P < 0.05) high-density lipoprotein. Inclusion of only 1% OP + 1% GP (G 6) decreased (P < 0.05) glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase; meanwhile, supplementation of 1% OP, 1% OP + 0.5% GP, or 1% OP + 1% GP increased (P < 0.05) creatinine. Conclusion: From the results obtained and under conditions suitable for this study, it can be mentioned that the incorporation of garlic or onion powder or the mixture of them can be safely used with improvement in the general health of hens, egg weight, and feed conversion and decrease in the blood cholesterol.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) encourages using medicinal herbs and plants to substitute or minimize the use of chemicals through the global trend to go back to nature. Many studies mentioned that using medicinal herbs and plants as feed additives seems to be a recent trend depending on availability and their cost but using them with monogastric animals and birds, as pharmaceutical tool, is available. Their action was manifested in a reduced expanding range of pathogenic microorganisms in the digestive tract, which resulted in the improvement of growth performance, efficient digestion, immunity, and health of poultry. Methods: The present work aimed to establish the influence of adding natural bioactive mixture composed of the juice of lemon, onion, and garlic (LOG) at portions 1.00, 1.00, and 0.125/l clean water, respectively, to laying hens' diets on their performance, egg quality, and some blood constituents. Seventy-two 30-week-old commercial Bovan Brown layers were randomly divided into four dietary treatment groups. Each treatment included eighteen hens in 6 replicates (3 birds each). All tested diets were almost isocaloric and isonitrogenous. Results: Adding LOG in laying hens' diets significantly (P < 0.05) improved feed conversion throughout the second stage of egg collection in comparison with the control group. Inclusion of LOG in laying hen diets significantly (P < 0.05) improved the number of eggs/hen, percentage of egg production, and egg mass/hen throughout the second stage of egg collection comparing with the control (G 1). Diet supplied by 1% LOG recorded the best value of yolk color (5.40) and yolk percentage (28.42%) compared with the other groups. Adding 2% or 3% LOG significantly (P < 0.05) decreased the total plasma cholesterol content compared to the control group. Inclusion of LOG at different levels significantly (P < 0.05) decreased blood plasma contents of GPT and GOT. However, insignificant decreases in blood plasma creatinine occurred comparing to control. Conclusion: Adding the natural bioactive mixture composed of the juice of lemon, onion, and garlic can be safely used in improving the general health, egg weight, and feed conversion with decreasing the blood cholesterol of laying hens. Supplementation of LOG in the ration of hens improved the feed conversion and egg production.

This work aimed to study the response of growing female NZW rabbits to quantitative feed restriction (FR) at 60% of ad-libitum applied and the effect of adding either copper sulfate (CuSO 4 ) and/or sodium bicarbonate (NaHCo 3 ) to drinking water on performance and hepatic expression of apolipoprotein (apoA1), lipoprotein (cholesteryl ester transfer protein CETP, hepatic lipase HL) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-1) during the summer period. Over the fattening period, rabbits fed AL during RES period (28-49 day of age) were significantly higher in most growth performance (GP) than RES-group, but all hepatic expression of genes tested decreased in feed restrictions group when compared to control on the other hand, adding either CuSO 4 or NaHCo 3 to drinking water slightly insignificant increase the expression of all the tested gens. When RES. rabbits fed freely after restriction (49-84 days of age). Logically, feed intake (FI) was significantly increased for AL group during FR period while, it was nearly similar, but FCE was more favorable for RES group throughout the whole period. Also, performance index (PI) was significantly higher for RES-groups. All values of carcass traits were significantly affected by FR. However, adding either CuSO 4 or NaHCo 3 to drinking water decreased GP during FR period. It can be concluded that FR had no significant effect on GP and slight decrease in gene expression for IGF-1 and lipoprotein gens, so it can applied FR to produce at slaughter age, rabbits with the same LBW of rabbits fed AL. Also, CuSO 4 or NaHCo 3 in drinking water is more practical to alleviate of heat load under the summer condition of Egypt.Keywords: Growing rabbits, Feed restriction, Copper sulfate, Sodium bicarbonate, Performance, Carcass IntroductionRabbit meat is an important source of protein for human because of its high quality and low fat. But during the summer months in Egypt can generate a state of stress and evoke a combination of behavioral, biochemical and physiological changes causing a reduction in rabbit performance. However, limiting the FI is widespread in animal breeding such as for adjusting the ration to the nutrient requirements or to manage the fattening and the www.ccsenet.org/jas Journal of Agricultural Science Vol. 3, No. 2; June 2011 ISSN 1916-9752 E-ISSN 1916 46 meat quality (Gidenne et al, 2009). Also, an intake restriction is frequency applied for the young rabbit female to avoid excessive fattening troubles (Rommers et al, 2004). However, feed restriction became systematic in much country as a preventive methods against post-weaning digestive disorders Boisot et al, 2004 andBergaoui et al, 2008). Boisot et al. (2003) demonstrated that the interest of a preventive restricted feeding to reduce the negative effect of this disorders on the growth performance of rabbits, they found that a feeding level of 60% was more efficient than 80% in Epizootic Rabbit Enteropathy (ERE) conditions. Moreover, restricted feeding induces compensatory growth by realimination and increas...

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he aim of this study was to inspect the effect of feeding Japanese quail chicks on diets containing different levels of Moringa Oleifera meal (MOM) on productive performance, carcass quality and blood constituents. Six hundred unsexed one-week-old birds of Japanese quail were equally divided into five experimental groups of 120 birds each. They were fed at 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% with MOM. The experiment lasted for six weeks during which the effect of MOM on the body weight, feed consumption, feed conversion, blood constituents and carcass traits were observed as indicator of performance. The results showed that, birds fed on 5 % MOM gained significantly higher body weight and body weight gain than birds fed the control diet, but the lowest feed consumption (P≤0.01) and best feed conversion ratio were obtained by using 20% MOM compared to control group. Using 20% MOM increased the weight of heart and liver significantly (P≤0.05) than other groups, but there were no significantly (P>0.05) differences in gizzard, carcass and edible parts weights of the growing Japanese quails in the four treatments. Plasma total protein and albumin were significantly higher in two groups (15 and 20 %) MOM as compared to other treated groups or control group. The best level of MOM was 20% which recorded a decrease in plasma cholesterol and LDL compared to control group, but plasma AST and ALT decreased with all levels of MOM. This study indicate that the 20% MOM diet can improve quail performance without negative effects on growth and carcass traits.