Umar Farooq , Riaz Mustafa* , Muhammad Farooq Khalid , Muhammad Auon , Umair Mahmood , Abdul Wahaab , Zia-ur-Rehman , Noor-ul-Huda , Muhammad Khalid Bashir , Shahid Mahmood and Jibran Hussain
University of Agriculture Faisalabad Sub campus Toba Tek Singh, Pakistan
*Corresponding author: drriaz@uaf.edu.pk
The demand for free range and organic poultry products is on the rise and there is a discouraging trend of using poultry reared on feed containing antibiotics as growth promoters. The growing concerns about the use of antibiotics is not baseless though as there are fare chances that they may leave residues in animal tissues and can cause drug-resistance among pathogens. Therefore, the use of natural growth promoters in poultry feed is getting popularity and demand for scientific research is intensifying. The present study was planned to investigate the use of natural growth promoters in Japanese quail diet. The treatments were designated as follows: A (5g Curcuma longa (Turmeric), B (5g Capsicum annum (Red Pepper), C (10g Nigella sativa (Black Cumin), D (10g Pimpinella anisum (Anise seed), E (Combination of treatments A, B, C and D) and F (Control). The data were recorded on following parameters: Body weight, feed conversion ratio, dressing percentage, giblet weight, digestibility coefficients for CP (crude protein), CF (crude fiber), EE (ether extract) and NFE (nitrogen free extract), and nutritive value of DCP% (digestible crude protein), TDN% (total digestible nutrients), ME (metabolizable energy) and mortality. The results showed best feed conversion ratio (FCR) (2.15±0.02), better digestibility coefficients of CP (84.02±1.3), CF (27.97±0.3) and NFE (87.96±1.8), higher nutritive value of TDN% (68.81±1.2) and ME (2895±20), and lowest mortality (2.33±0.50) for birds fed on 5g Turmeric i.e. treatment A. Use of Black Cumin (treatment C) produced highest body weight (122.5±0.2), better FCR (2.31±0.02), good dressing percentage (56.7±0.4) and higher gizzard (2.7±0.01) and intestinal weights (7.5±0.02) than control. Nevertheless, the best dressing percentage (59.5±0.4) was obtained in case of feeding Anise seed i.e., treatment D. However, treatments B and E did not show significant improvement in any of the observed parameters. Results concluded that use of natural herbs and seeds such as Turmeric, Black Cumin and Anise seed is beneficial for quail growth production.