The present experiment was planned to ascertain the effect of dietary incorporation of chili (Capsicum annuum) leaf powder on production performance and egg quality parameters of Rhode Island Red laying hens of 28 weeks of age for a period of 12 weeks. Hens were individually weighed and then randomly assigned into four treatment groups with three replicates of 6 birds each viz., T1: (control, containing basal diet); T2: Incorporation of 0.5% chili leaf powder in basal diet; T3: Incorporation of 1.5% chili leaf powder in basal diet; T4: Incorporation of 2.5% chili leaf powder in basal diet. The results indicated that egg production and feed conversion ratio were not significantly affected. However, overall average feed intake significantly (P<0.05) reduced in hens supplemented with 2.5% chili leaf powder. Egg quality parameters viz., egg weight, shape index, shell weight percentage and shell thickness of eggs, egg albumen quality such as albumen height, albumen weight and Haugh unit were statistically similar among all the groups. The egg yolk quality parameters including yolk weight, yolk percentage, yolk index, yolk cholesterol and yolk triglycerides did not differ significantly among different treatment groups, however, egg yolk colour was significantly (P<0.05) improved in T4 group, compared to T1 group. While, egg yolk colour in treatment groups T1, T2 and T3 showed no significant difference. To conclude, supplementation of chilli leaf powder @ 2.5% can be used to improve egg yolk colour.

This experiment aimed to study the effect of dietary thyme and turmeric essential oils supplementation on growth performance, nutrient utilization and economics of Japanese quails. For this purpose, a total of 180 six-day-old Japanese quail chicks were randomly assigned into five different treatment groups, each with three replicates (12 birds per replicate). The experiment was conducted for 35 days. Different treatment groups of Japanese quails were designated as T0 (Basal diet without essential oils), T1 (Basal diet with 0.2% thyme essential oil), T2 (Basal diet with 0.3% turmeric essential oil, T3 (Basal diet with 0.125% thyme + 0.075% turmeric essential oils), and T4 (Basal diet with 0.075% thyme + 0.125 % turmeric essential oils). At the end of experiment, it was found that dietary supplementation of thyme and turmeric essential oils reduced feed consumption, improved body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio, with Japanese quails of T4 group showing best performance during overall experimental period. The feed cost per kg weight gain was minimum in treatment T4 over other treatment groups. Addition of thyme and turmeric essential oils in diet significantly enhanced nutrient utilization in Japanese quails. In conclusion, supplementing thyme and turmeric essential oils in combination at 0.075% and 0.125% of feed improved growth performance, utilization of nutrients and reduced feed cost per kg weight gain in Japanese quails.

This experiment was undertaken to assess the influence of thyme (Thymus vulgaris) and turmeric (Curcuma longa) essential oils on hematobiochemical parameters of Japanese quails. One hundred eighty, 6-day old Japanese quail chicks were subjected to five weeks trial. Quail chicks were distributed at random into five dietary treatment groups each with three replicates of 12 quails per treatment. Quails of T0 group fed diet without essential oils (Basal diet), T1 group fed basal diet with 0.2 % thyme essential oil, T2 group fed basal diet with 0.3% turmeric essential oil, T3 group fed basal diet with combination of 0.125 % thyme essential oil and 0.075 % turmeric essential oils, T4 group fed basal diet with combination of 0.075% thyme essential oil and 0.125 % turmeric essential oils. The results revealed that Japanese quails of essential oils supplemented groups had significantly higher (p<0.05) red blood cell count, packed cell volume, haemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, serum protein, albumin globulin and high-density lipoprotein concentrations with best results found in T4   group. Supplementing Japanese quails with thyme and turmeric essential oils significantly lowered serum uric acid, creatinine, total bilirubin, glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, SGOT and SGPT activity. It can be concluded that nutritional supplementation of thyme and turmeric essential oils at 0.075 % and 0.125 % in combination improved haematological indices and most of the serum biochemical parameters in Japanese quails.