This study was conducted to investigate and compare the effects of substituting soybean meal (SBM) with untreated cottonseed meal (CSM), fermented CSM (FCSM), or electron beam-irradiated CSM (ICSM) on the growth performance, cecal microbiota, digestive enzyme activity, apparent ileal digestibility (AID), and excreta gas emission of broiler chickens. A total of 384 one-day-old male broiler chickens were randomly assigned to four experimental diets, with eight replicates per diet and 12 birds per replicate, for six weeks. The experimental diets consisted of a control diet based on corn-SBM and three other diets in which 50% of the SBM (control) was substituted with CSM in its raw, irradiated, and fermented forms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study investigates the effects of replacing soybean meal (SBM) with either cottonseed meal (CSM) or fermented cottonseed meal (FCSM) on the productive performance, egg quality, blood biochemistry parameters, gut bacterial population, and small intestinal morphology of laying hens. A total of 648 Hy-Line W36 laying hens aged 40 weeks were randomly assigned to 9 treatments, with 6 replicates each and 12 birds per replicate. The feeding trial lasted 12 weeks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn poultry production, the search for alternatives to in-feed antibiotics continues unabated. This study investigated the effects of dietary supplementation of black pepper and turmeric powder, separately or in combination, on the growth performance, gastrointestinal microbiota population, intestinal morphology, serum biochemical parameters, meat quality, and meat fatty acid profile in Japanese quails. Five hundred-day-old mixed-sex Japanese quail chicks were randomly assigned to one of five treatments: a control diet (CON); CON +0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different dietary inclusion of eucalyptus essential oil (EEO) on growth performance, relative organ weight, cecal microflora, nutrient digestibility, serum biochemical parameters, and thigh muscle fatty acid profile in broiler chickens. A total of six hundred 1-day-old male broiler chickens were randomly allocated into 5 treatment groups with 8 replicate pens, and each pen contained 15 birds. The experiment lasted for 42 d.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of whey powder (WP), Bacillus subtilis (BAS), and their combination (MIX) on growth performance, intestinal morphology, caecal microflora, hepatic gene expression, blood metabolites, and skeletal muscle antioxidant capacity in Japanese quails. A total of 400 one-day-old Japanese quails were randomly distributed to 20-floor pens (4 dietary treatments, 5 replications per treatment, 20 birds per pen). The birds were fed a basal diet (control, CON) or the basal diet supplemented with 40 g/kg WP, 1 g/kg BAS probiotic or 40 g/kg WP plus 1 g/kg BAS probiotic for five weeks.
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