Use of lemongrass essential oil as a feed additive in quail's nutrition: its effect on growth, carcass, blood biochemistry, antioxidant and immunological indices, digestive enzymes and intestinal microbiota

Abstract

The present study was designed to assess the impact of dietary supplementation of lemongrass essential oil ( LGEO ) on growth performance, carcass traits, liver and kidney function, immunity, antioxidant indices and caecal microbiota of growing quail. A total of 200 Japanese quails at 1-week-old were haphazardly allotted to 5 groups of 40 chicks in five replicates (8 per replicate). The first group was the control group, while LGEO was added at levels of 150, 300, 450, and 600 mg/kg diet in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th groups, respectively. Dietary supplementation of LGEO (150, 300 and 450 mg/ kg diet) increased body weight at 3 and 5 wk of age, and increased body weight gain during all periods compared with the control group ( P < 0.05). All levels of LGEO improved feed conversion ratio during the periods from 1 to 3 and 1 to 5 wk of age. During 3 to 5 wk, feed conversion ratio was improved in quails fed LGEO (300 and 450 mg/kg diet) compared with the control and other treatments. Carcass traits, plasma globulin, alanine aminotransferase, and urea values did not differ among the treatments ( P > 0.05), but the activity of aspartate aminotransferase in the plasma was significantly decreased ( P < 0.05) in LGEO-treated groups. The total protein and albumin values were significantly increased ( P < 0.05) in quails fed levels of LGEO (except 600 mg/kg diet) compared with the control. The inclusion of LGEO in quail diets improved ( P < 0.05) plasma lipid profile. The dietary supplementation of LGEO increased (linear and quadratic, P < 0.05) plasma immunoglobulins (IgM, IgG, and IgA) levels, lysozyme values and activities of superoxide dismutase, total antioxidant capacity, reduced glutathione and catalase compared with the control group. The caecal Coliform, E. coli and Salmonella were lowered ( P < 0.0001) in the quails treated with all LGEO levels, but the total bacterial count and Lactobacillus count were increased with dietary supplementation of LGEO levels (300 and 450 mg/kg) compared with those in the control group. The activities of digestive enzymes were significantly higher in birds fed the diet supplemented with LGEO levels than those fed the control diet. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of LGEO can improve the performance, lipid profile, immunity and antioxidant indices and decline intestinal pathogens and thus boost the health status of growing quail.

Dietary citric acid enhances growth performance, nutrient digestibility, intestinal microbiota, antioxidant status, and immunity of Japanese quails

“…Widespread Japanese quail breeding in developing countries may help overcome the current gap in meat supply ( Minvielle 2004 ; Alagawany et al, 2021a ; Reda et al, 2021 ). Quails are economically important as a source of meat and eggs, but quail production has not yet reached its full potential in the poultry industry ( Genchev et al, 2008 ).…”

Effects of dietary Lasia spinosa Thw. powder supplementation on growth performance, blood metabolites, antioxidant status, intestinal morphology, and cecal microbiome in Chinese yellow-feathered broilers

“…In the last decades, dietary manipulation with innovative feed supplements, such as medicinal plant and its derivatives, are among the common advanced strategies [5,[24][25][26]. Medicinal plants are re ected a cornerstone of medicine since earliest times, and have been employed as promoters of antioxidant capacity, immunity and growth in animals [26].…”

“…Moreover, Kaewamatawong et al [33] studied the acute to subchronic toxicity of LST in mice and found that LST signi cantly decreased the triglyceride values but did not induce any toxicological effects in the acute and subchronic term. The presence of anti-hypertensive compounds such as avonoids and alkaloids present in LST could be responsible to reduce serum triglycerides and LDL-C and enhancing the HDL-C levels and thus avoiding cardiovascular ailment [24]. Further studies should be conducted to validate the underlined mechanism of LST as an anti-hypertensive agent for drug treatments in poultry.…”

“…The elimination of extra OS depends on the action of several enzymes such as SOD and CAT [10]. Moreover, chicken meat is relatively rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, making it vulnerable to oxidation [11,24]. Therefore, diet-derived antioxidants may be vital in reducing cumulative oxidative damage.…”

Lemongrass Essential Oil Components with Antimicrobial and Anticancer Activities

“…The EO components with different functional groups exhibit different levels of antimicrobial potential where phenols and aldehydes have the highest activities while esters and hydrocarbons have the least [38]. However, the antimicrobial activity of lemongrass is extensively attributed to the citral (aldehyde) present in its oil [26,39,40]. It is suggested low concentration of LEO inhibits microbial growth and development (bacteriostatic, fungistatic, and virustatic) while higher concentration renders irreversible destruction leading to microbial death (bactericidal, fungicidal, and virucidal) [41,42].…”