The demand for quail eggs has been increased over the last decade due to its beneficial nutritional quality characteristics; however, different nutritional and environmental stressors adversely impact the quality of the produced eggs. This study was conducted to investigate whether dietary supplementation of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) could mitigate the negative impact of cadmium (Cd) administration on egg quality and liver histopathology. A total of 162 six-week-old laying Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) were randomly allotted into three experimental groups.Treatments were as follows: (1) negative control (NC): feeding basal diet; (2) positive control (PC): feeding basal diet and Cd administration; and (3) CdQ10: feeding basal diet supplemented with CoQ10 (900 mg/kg diet) and Cd administration. Cadmium (10 mg/kg BW) was subcutaneously administrated at 10 and 11 weeks of age (woa). Feed conversion ratio (FCR), egg production, egg mass, mortality rate, Cd residue in egg, liver histopathology, and some internal and external egg quality indices were evaluated. Administration of Cd increased FCR in the PC group, but supplementation of CoQ10 partially ameliorated the impact of Cd on FCR (p < 0.05). Cadmium administration decreased both egg production and egg mass; however, CoQ10 supplementation partially mitigated these adverse effects of Cd injection in the CdQ10 compared to the PC group (p < 0.05). Cadmium decreased eggshell thickness and Haugh unit in PC quail compared to both NC and CdQ10 quail (p < 0.05). Moreover, egg yolk colour intensity was enhanced by CoQ10, where a* and b* indices were higher in CdQ10 compared to PC (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the current results demonstrate the beneficial effects of dietary CoQ10 supplementation on liver histopathology and some egg quality indices of Cd-challenged quail.

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Background Acidifier are substances with antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial, performance and health benefits that are frequently employed in feed acidification, especially in poultry diet. Meanwhile, the most important factor for acidifier efficiency is the proportion of different acids in the final product. Objectives This study aimed to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of a commercial acidifier on egg production and histology of the small intestine in laying Japanese quail. Methods One‐hundred and sixty female quails at 15 weeks of age were divided into four groups and fed basal diet supplemented with different levels of acidifier (0, 1, 2 and 3 gr acidifier/kg of basal diet) for 8 weeks. Egg production, egg quality attributes and body weight (BW) were measured every 2 weeks. Histology of the small intestine and bacterial population of cecum as well as pH of crop, duodenum, jejunum, ileum and cecum contents were also investigated at the end of the experiment. Results Feed conversion ratio (FCR), yolk height, shell thickness, pH of the duodenum, jejunum, ileum, cecum; duodenum, villus width (VW), villus height (VH), crypt depth (CD); jejunum VH, VW and ileum VH to CD ratio (VCR) were linearly improved by the increasing levels of acidifier supplementation ( P < 0.05). Duodenum VH increased in a linear and quadratic manner in response to increasing levels of acidifier. Egg weight, yolk diameter, jejunum CD, ileum CD, ileum VW, duodenum CD and jejunum VCR quadratically improved by grading levels of acidifier ( P < 0.01). BW, albumen height, Haugh unit, ileum VH and ileum VCR were cubically enhanced ( P < 0.05). Acidifier supplementation enhanced egg production, FCR, jejunum, ileum and cecum pH and VH, CD and VW of duodenum and jejunum, compared to the control group ( P < 0.05); however, dietary acidifier did not affect egg mass, gizzard pH, ileum VH and bacterial count of the cecum ( P > 0.05). Conclusions In conclusion, as calculated, the supplementation of 1 and 2.6 g acidifier per kg of diet was associated with beneficial effects on egg production and quality, gastrointestinal tract pH and histology of the small intestine in laying quails.

Background:In recent decades, efforts to produce more efficient poultry products have increased due to its high demand. Meanwhile, some stressors have a negative impact on poultry efficiency and reproduction. Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic heavy metal with a high potential for inducing reactive oxygen species. On the other hand, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), with antioxidant properties, exerts a free radical-neutralizing effect on biological systems under stressful conditions.Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effect of dietary CoQ10 supplementation on reproductive variables of Cd-challenged male quails. Methods: Two hundred and sixteen 42-day-old Japanese quails with a male-to-female ratio of 1:3 were randomly divided into three experimental groups (n = 72) and fed by experimental diets from 9 to 13 weeks of age (woa). Treatments included a negative control (NC): feeding basal diet; positive control (PC): feeding basal diet and Cd administration (1 mg per 100 g body weight at 10 and 11 woa); and CdQ10: dietary supplementation of CoQ10 (900 mg per kg diet) and Cd administration. At 10 and 13 woa, liver and testis, cloacal gland index, sera concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) and testosterone, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), testicular histology, mRNA abundance of Hsp70 and fatty acid profile of testis, as well as hatchability and fertility, were measured.Results: Liver and testis weights, cloacal gland index, serum concentration of testosterone, ALT, MDA, TAC, mRNA abundance of HSP70, hatchability, and fertility were not affected by the treatments. However, Cd administration decreased seminiferous tubule diameter and seminiferous epithelium thickness (SET) in the PC group compared to the NC group (p < 0.05). The proportion of saturated fatty acids (SFA) in testis tissue was increased, and the proportion of PUFA and n-3 to n-6 PUFA ratio was decreased in the PC group compared to the NC group (p < 0.05). In addition, CoQ10This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.