Effect of different levels of black seed on growth performance, some blood factors and immune response in quail

Dissertation for Master's Degree in Animal Nutrition

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of different levels of black seed on growth performance, some blood factors and immune response in quail. For this purpose, 240 one-day-old quail pieces were distributed in 4 treatments and 4 repetitions and 15 quail pieces in each repetition in a completely random design. The experimental groups included the control treatment (basic diet + 0% black seed), treatment one (basic diet + 0.5% black seed), treatment two (basic diet + 1% black seed), treatment three (basic diet + 1.5% black seed), and after the analysis of black seed, the diet was adjusted according to the NRC of 1994. The duration of the experiment was 6 weeks. Feed consumption, weight gain and feed conversion ratio were measured at the end of each week. And at the end of the period, two quails were selected for blood sampling from each repetition to measure the immune response against SRBC on days 14 and 28. Sheep blood was injected intramuscularly. 7 and 14 days after the injection, blood sampling was done from two quails. On days 28 and 42 of each treatment, 2 pieces of quail were selected to measure the efficiency of the carcass and immune organs. 0-21 days of treatment 3 had more feed consumption than other treatments and showed a significant difference (p ? 0.05), treatment 2 showed the highest weight gain and the best conversion rate compared to other treatments (p ? 0.05), the control treatment had the highest amount of LDL, cholesterol and triglycerides (p ? 0.05), treatments 2 and 3 significantly had the highest amount of red blood cells compared to the treatment had a control (p ? 0.05), the percentage of the bursa compared to the live weight at 42 days of the control treatment was significantly different from other treatments (p ? 0.05), treatment 3 had a significant difference in the ratio of testes in males compared to other treatments (p ? 0.05), the amount of immune response against SRBC in the sixth week of treatment 2 was significantly different from other treatments (p ? 0.05), the difference between treatments in terms of (HDL, VLDL, albumin, total protein, hemoglobin, hematocrit, carcass yield, breast, thighs, liver, spleen, calculus, heart, abdominal fat) there was no significant difference (p ? 0.05).

Key words: black seed, production performance, blood factors, immunity, carcass yield, quail rtl;"> 

Chapter One:

Introduction

Reliable access to food resources needed by human societies has become an inevitable necessity. is The state of food production in today's world, especially in developing countries, is one of the most important economic issues, and according to some forecasts, this issue may cause social problems in the near future. The increasing world population, especially in poor countries, is the most important reason for this (6).  Most of the developing countries have a hard time providing food for their population, and a huge part of the world's human population suffers from malnutrition (57).  The need for protein is one of the issues facing human nutrition and its importance in growth and health is completely clear. With the increase in world population, the human need for protein materials has increased day by day. This issue has caused many animals whose meat is suitable for human consumption to be domesticated and with their industrial breeding, a part of human protein needs is met. Nowadays, due to the increasing population and the need to provide food, the improvement of production efficiency causes the nutritional level of the people of the world to gradually improve (7). The poultry industry will play a major role in this development and improvement. Therefore, one of the main goals in this industry is to improve production efficiency with minimum cost. Since the nutrition sector accounts for most of the costs in this industry, it is necessary and significant to try to improve the performance, the use of nutrients in the diet (11). Scientists in most parts of the world have started continuous activities to meet these needs. Among these activities that started many years ago is the domestication, breeding and improvement of some species of wild birds.For example, the development of the quail industry in Estonia started when quail eggs arrived there in 1976, and the morphological characteristics of quail and research on high-producing and resistant herds in this country were investigated and studied (2). In this connection, quail breeding was of special importance in the early 20th century by livestock breeders. Since the health, dynamism and flourishing of the talents of the people of any society depend on proper and sufficient nutrition, especially the animal protein part of the people of that society. Therefore, in order to provide animal protein, the development of animal husbandry, especially the industry of poultry and other birds, including quail, becomes an undeniable necessity (3). The study of quail as a bird can be fundamental or applied for several reasons. Currently, quail is widely used as a laboratory animal. And many other benefits have also made quail breeding important. Quail with suitable characteristics of small size, fast growth, early maturity, high egg production, short laying interval of about 20 hours, short generation interval, low need for rearing environment in terms of area, low food requirement, resistance to ration salinity up to 3% salt, short incubation period, resistance to many common diseases of broiler chickens, high quality of meat and eggs, high production price, low cost of food and treatment, and quick return on investment. It is known as a bird with economic value and is now bred in many countries of the world. And extensive research is being done on it (80). For the first time, the industrial breeding of this bird was done by Dr. Motamed in the Karaj fish farm in Tehran province. Then Dr. Radi Meybodi started breeding quails in Yazd. After that, in various cities of the country, including Tabriz, Mashhad, Qom, Karaj and other areas, quail breeding became popular in small and large industrial units (2).

The presence of suitable characteristics made quail considered a desirable bird by farmers and breeders, and many of them turned to industrial breeding of this bird (2).

Quail breeding has found a special place in the poultry breeding industry today, and due to people's demand, its breeding is expanding. Quails and broilers are fast growing birds. During the breeding period, these birds face various stressful factors, and these stresses cause changes in hormones, decrease in feed consumption, changes in nutrient metabolism, and weaken the immune system. One of the strategies for success in the poultry breeding industry is proper nutrition, which has received attention from various aspects, including the relationship between nutrition and growth and improvement of immunity (80). In this regard, nutritional conditions affect immunology and response to infectious agents in the host, and on the contrary, acute or chronic infectious diseases will also have a detrimental effect on nutritional conditions. When it comes to control, prevention is more important than cure. Because firstly, treatment in large places is difficult and secondly, its costs are high. While disease prevention is easier and less expensive. Therefore, measures should be taken that consider the issue of disease prevention instead of treatment. To prevent the occurrence of diseases and increase resistance, there are several methods, including vaccination, the use of antibiotics, etc., each of these methods, despite improving the function of the immune system, has disadvantages such as the development of resistance of microorganisms to antibiotics, and the duration of the use of antibiotics and the distance between the last stage of their use and the time when the birds are transported to the slaughterhouse should be investigated, and even if all conditions are followed, the possibility of side effects caused by There is a possibility of these substances remaining in the carcass and in the body of people who use these products, especially in large quantities, in their diet. As a result, the concerns caused by the adverse effects of excessive use of antibiotics in poultry nutrition are expanding day by day (46).

In recent decades, in order to increase the production efficiency of livestock and poultry, compounds have been used as food additives and growth stimulants, which are used in the availability of nutrients in the diet and improve growth. From antibiotics and their limited use, animal and poultry nutritionists are looking for alternatives to these compounds.