THE EFFECTS OF INCLUSION OF THYME ESSENTIAL OIL TO DIET CONTAINING FUMONISIN B1 ON PERFORMANCE TRAITS OF JAPANESE QUAILS (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

This study was carried out to determine the effects of inclusion of thyme essential oil to diet containing fumonisin B1 on performance traits of Japanese quails. In the present study, a total of 160 12-d-old Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) were randomly distributed into four experimental groups (4 replicates with 10 quails) and fed following diets for 28 days: I) Control group (C): basal diet; II) C+200 ppm FB1; III) C+1000 ppm thyme essential oil (TEO); IV) C+200 ppm FB1+1000 ppm TEO of diet. Performance parameters were determined weekly. Feed were given ad libitum. The results showed that feeding alone with FB1-containing diet significantly decreased body weight gain and feed consumption during the experimental period. The inclusion of TEO to FB1-containing diet significantly (P 0.05) reduced the deleterious effects of FB1 on body weight gain and feed consumption. Also, the inclusion of TEO to FB1-containing diet significantly (P 0.05) improved in feed conversion ratio and liveability compared with the FB1 containing group, but the inclusion of TEO to the control diet did not improve in performance traits and liveability. These results suggested that the inclusion of TEO to FB1- containing diet effectively diminished the detrimental effects of FB1 on performance traits and liveability of Japanese quails.