Vol. 9, Issue 3, Part E (2024)

Author(s): S Sumanth, K Sangilimadan, R Richard Churchil and PSL Sesh

Abstract: A study was conducted to the effect of dietary supplementation of amla fruit powder, tulsi leaf powder and their combination on production performance of Japanese quails. For this study 252 day-old straight run Japanese quails were randomly distributed into seven treatments consisting of six replicates each. Each replicate had six birds. The birds were reared in cages throughout the biological experiment and Japanese quail brooder mash diet was provided as control diet (T₁), brooder mash with amla fruit powder (AFP) at the rate of 0.5% (T₂), 1.0% (T₃), tulsi leaf powder (TLP) at the rate of 0.25% (T₄), 0.5% (T₅), amla fruit powder 0.5% + tulsi leaf powder 0.25% (T₆),amla fruit powder 1.0% + tulsi leaf powder 0.5% (T₇) were used. The results revealed that there was significant difference between the treatment groups in body weight up to fourth week of the experiment. During 5^thweek there was statistically non-significant improvement in all treatment groups than in control. The statistical analysis of the data in the study revealed that, there was significant (p<0.05) difference in weekly body weight gain of Japanese quails from first to fifth week of age. The supplementation of phytobiotics separately or in combination positively influenced the body weight gain. Supplementation of AFP and TLP alone or in combination significantly (p<0.05) influenced the feed intake during third and fifth week of age. However, the supplementation had no significant (p>0.05) effect on overall feed intake of birds. The overall feed efficiency showed statistically non-significant (p>0.05) improvement among the treatment groups. The overall livability of birds (from day-old to five weeks) showed no significant (p>0.05) difference among the treatment groups. It was concluded that the results revealed that there was significant difference between the treatment groups in body weight up to fourth week of the experiment. The birds supplemented with combination of AFP and TLP at both higher and lower levels in feed recorded significant (p<0.05) increase in weight gain in second and third weeks. The overall feed intake, feed efficiency and livability showed statistically non-significant (p>0.05) improvement among the treatment groups.