Effect of prebiotic on growth prerformance and immune response of Japanese quail chicks

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of prebiotic (Alphamune) ýsupplementation on growth performance, immune responses, histopathological test and ýcarcass characteristics of Japanese quail. A total number of 117 unsexed Japanese quail ýchicks, day old, were weighed and distributed randomly into three experimental groups. ýThe birds in each group were distributed to 3 replicates with 13 birds each and were ýhoused in separate pens in battery cages with raised wire floors. Birds of the first ýexperimental group served as control group (T1). The birds of the second experimental ýgroup (T2) were fed a ration containing prebiotic (Alphamune) at alevel of 0.5 g I kg diet. ýThe birds of the third experimental group (T3) were fed a ration containing 1.0 g/ kg diet ýof the prebiotic. The conditions of housing and management of birds for all groups were ýsimilar during the experimental time. The obtained results could be summarized as ýfollows: Body weight gain was significantly (P≤0.05) higher for group fed I000g ýprebiotic /ton feed compared to other groups but there was no significant difference ýamong all groups in feed intake. Feed conversion ratio was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) ýsuperior for groups fed levels of prebiotic compared with control groups. Regarding- to ýcarcass characteristics, there were no significant differences among all groups of study. ýResults of humoral immune response in4icated that in primary immune response (after a ýweek of first injection), both groups 2 and 3 displayed slightly higher antibody titers ýcompared to control group. While, in secondary immune response after a week of booster ýdose, both prebiotic treated groups demonstrated obvious higher antibodies titer than ýcontrol group. Same trend was found- with the percent of phagocytic and phagocytic ýindex. On the other hand, lysozyme activity and nitric oxide values for quail treated with ýprebiotic show insignificant higher values than control. Results of histopathological test ýrevealed that group 2 shows the best values in villi, crypt and goblet cells compared with ýthe other groups. In general, this study suggested that adding prebiotic M to Japanese ýquail diet at level of 0.5 and Ig/ Kg diet improved body weight gain, feed conversion ýratio, humoral immune response, This study Was conduc phagocytic activities, lysozyme ýactivity (immunoenhancing agent in poultry farms to protect against infection and ýincrease vaccination efficiency) and enhanced the absorption compared to control group.ý