Growth Performance and the Intestine Morphometry of Japanese Quail That Fed Diets Supplemented With Vitamin E and Selenium

Background: Small intestine and peripheral organs are the main organs for digestion and absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. OBJECTIVES: To investigate effects of different levels of Vitamin E and Selenium on growth performance and small intestine morphometry in Japanese quail. METHODS: A total of 405 mixed sex Japanese quails were randomly allocated into 9 experimental groups by 3×3 factorial design (3 replications and 15 chicken per pen) using Vitamin E (0, 150 and 300 mg/kg) and sodium Selenium (0, 0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg feed) for the entire study. Then, feed intake, body weight gain and food conversion ratio were recorded on days 1721, 2235 and 1735 of the study. At day 35 of the study, 3 birds were randomly selected from each replication, slaughtered and various sections of small intestine (10, 50 and 90% of small intestine length) sampled for morphometry characteristics. Villi height and crypts depth were measured microscopically. RESULTS: According to the results, different levels of Vitamin E and Selenium supplements had no effect on growth performance (P gt;0.05). Also, supplementation of diet with Vitamin E and Selenium significantly increased villi height and crypts depth in various sections of small intestine on day 35 (P lt;0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest Vitamin E and Selenium supplemented diets had beneficial effect on small intestine morphometry characteristics in Japanese quail. Keywords: