چكيده لاتين :
Introduction:Medicinal plants can be used as a natural non
-
antibiotic growth promoters in broilers
(
Mohiti
-
Asli et al. 2010). Herbs and medicinal plants could have various advantages including simple
usage, lack of negative side effects on animal performance and without harmful residue in animal
products (Shokoohmand 2008). Garden cress (
Lepidium sativum
) belongs to umbelliferous and has
medicinal properties which reduce blood triglycerides and cholesterol. This herb contains sterols,
saponins, glycosinolate, sulfur
-
containing glycosides, indole, terpenoids, isothiocyanate and
secondary metabolites such a
s phenolic compounds including tannins and flavonoids (Dannehl et al.
2012). Research has shown garden cress increased HDL
-
cholesterol and decreased LDL
-
cholesterol
in serum of mice and humans (Chauhan et al. 2012; Moghimi 1982), reduced cholesterol
concen
tration and LDL and VLDL
-
cholesterol in serum of rabbit (Salih 1994; Lathaa, et al. 2011).
Supplementation of garden cress to laying hens diet improved feed conversion ratio and egg
production (Al
-
Taee 2013)
.Material and method
s
:
An experiment was conduct
ed as a completely randomized design using 280
day
-
old quail chicks (mixed sex) with 5 treatments, 4 replicates and 14 quail chicks in each replicate
from 1 to 42 days. The experimental treatments were included control (without extract) and levels of
0.5,
1, 1.5, 2 ml of garden cress (
Lepidium sativum
) seed extract per one liter of drinking water. Diet
were formulated to meet or exceed the nutritional requirements of Japanese quail as indicated in
standard tables (NRC, 1994). Quails in each replicate were w
eighed by week and feed intake was
determined at the end of each week. From these data, average daily weight gain, average daily feed
intake and feed conversion ratio were calculated. On day 42 of experiment, two birds (one male and
one female) from each r
eplicate were selected then weighed, were killed and carcass yield and carcass
components including breast, thighs, wings, abdominal fat, fat around neck, and bursa of Fabricius
were weighed using a digital scale and their relative weight to body weight we
re calculated. To
determine ileal microbial population of quails, after opening the abdominal cavity, ileum region
between Meckel’s diverticulum and ileocecal junction separated by a sterilized scissor, about two cm
of the ileum were transferred into steri
le microtubes and were stored at
-
20 C until study
E. coli
,
lactobacillus and coliform microbial populations (Roostaei
-
Ali Mehr et al. 2014). Eosin methylene
blue agar medium (Merck, Germany) was used to culture
E. coli
, for the cultivation of coliforms fr
om
the MacConkey agar (Merck, Germany) and lactobacillus cultures from the MRS (Merck, Germany)
were used. To study the blood metabolites, on day 42, blood samples were taken from wing vein of
two quails from each replicate (one male and one female) and th
en sera were separated to measure
cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL
-
and LDL
-
cholesterol using enzymatic kits via colorimetric method
.
Results and
d
iscussion:
In this study, using garden cress seed extract in drinking water had not any
significant effect on feed intake, daily weight gain and feed efficiency of Japanese quail (P>0.05;
Table 2). It is reported that 1 and 2 % inclusion rate of garden cress in broi
ler diets had no significant
effect on feed intake (Al
-
Taee 2013; Salih 1994). Several factors influence on feed intake such as physical characteristics, viscosity, saliva production, the nutritional value of feed, feed particle size
depends on the interac
tion between components (Blair 2008). The results showed that carcass and
carcass components except thighs were not affected by any treatments at 42 day of age (Table 3).
Researchers reported that supplementation of fennel seeds in broiler diets did not
af
fect carcass
characteristics
and weights of liver, spleen, exchange, heart and abdominal fat (Soltan et al. 2008).
Similarly, adding mint to broiler diets did not affect the relative weights of organs (Ocak et al. 2008).
The results of relative length of d
ifferent parts of small intestine at day 42 showed that consumption
of garden cress seed extract via drinking water had a significant impact on the relative length of the
intestinal segments (Table 4). It has been reported that the addition of mint essenti
al oil in broiler
diets, the weight of the small intestine and colon were not affected (Hernandez 2004). Results of a
study on the effects of mint, thyme and chicory herbs in diets on jejunum and ileum histology of
broiler chickens showed no significant ef
fect on villi length, crypt depth, and villi length to crypt
depth ratio (Poursina et al. 2014). Any levels of garden cress extract had significant effect on the
population of
E. coli
and coliforms in ileum (P>0.05). However, the number of Lactobacillus af
fected
by different treatments (P<0.05) and quail fed 0.5, 1, and 1.5 ml of garden cress seed extract in water
has a higher number of Lactobacillus (P=0.05). The lack of effect of cress seed extract on
E.coli
in
this study may be due to the type of extract
(hydro
-
alcoholic) or using a lower dose than the noted
study. Gut microflora has a close relation with the productivity and growth of the host animal's
intestinal system (Barrow 1992). Serum lipids were not affected by the different treatments and there
w
as no significant difference between treatments (P>0.05). It has been reported that using the cress
seed essential oil in mice reduced blood triglycerides, however did not affect HDL
-
cholesterol
(Diwakar et al. 2010). Using garden cress leaves in amount 50
grams per day in humans can reduce
LDL
-
cholesterol and triglyceride is (Moghimi 1982). Reasons for lack of effect of the cress seed
extract on lipid quail can related to type of extract, form of use, animal species or insufficient dose of
it.
Conclusion:
The results of this study showed that the use of garden cress seed hydro
-
alcoholic extract
had not any significant effect on performance (daily feed intake, daily weight gain and FCR), ca
rcass
traits, intestinal length and
serum lipids of Japanese quail. E
ffect of cress seed hydro
-
alcoholic extract
on
E.coli
and coliform bacteria was not significant, however supplementation of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 ml of
the extract in Japanese quail increased intestinal lactobacilli count.
