The Effect of In Ovo Administration of Rosemary Essential Oil on Hatchability, Relative Hatching Weight, and Embryo Mortality Rate in Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the effects of air sac injection of rosemary essential oil at different concentrations in ovo in quail eggs on hatching rate, relative chick weight at hatching, and embryonic mortality rate. A total of 1060 Japanese quail eggs were divided into four groups: negative control (non-injected), positive control (30 µL sterile distilled water/egg), and two treated groups with 1 and 3 µL oil/egg, respectively. The concentration of 3 µL/egg showed a toxic effect on embryonic development, as revealed by the significantly (p = 0.015) higher post-injection mortality rate (18.21%) compared to 1 µL/egg with 8.3%. Furthermore, hatchability was significantly increased (p = 0.0001) with 1 µL/egg compared to 3 µL/egg with 69.1% and 44.48%, respectively. No significant difference was observed between the concentration of 1 µL/egg and the control groups (p = 0.822). Both l and 3 µL essential oil/egg significantly enhanced (p = 0.0001) relative chick weight at hatching by 67.14% and 70.32%, respectively, compared to the control groups. In conclusion, injecting eggs with 1 µL oil/egg showed positive effects both on hatching and relative chick weight. The concentration of 3 µL/egg was revealed to be toxic, with dramatic effects on embryonic survival.

Effects of exposing Japanese quail eggs to a low dose of gamma radiation and in ovo feeding by two sources of trace elements on embryonic development activities

“…In addition, micronutrients regulate physiological, cellular, and molecular mechanisms by which the developing embryo derives its nutrition via the YSM ( Uni et al, 2012 ). Therefore, the in ovo feeding technique is an alternative method to safely deliver external natural or synthetic nutrient solutions into developing chick embryos at this critical and challenging phase and is regarded as an important technology by poultry industry scientists ( Givisiez et al, 2020 ; Aberbour et al, 2023 ). Quail has spread widely in many countries of the world because of its high nutritional value as one of the sources of animal protein, low cholesterol ( Lukanov and Pavlova, 2020 ), and increasing protein muscle concentration ( Lukanov et al, 2023 ).…”