Impact of dietary supplementation of peppermint and eucalyptus essential oils on nutrient utilization in Japanese quails

Abstract

The present experiment was carried out to study the impact of dietary supplementation of peppermint and eucalyptus essential oils on nutrient utilization in Japanese quails. A total of 180 Japanese quail chicks were divided into 5 groups with 3 replicates containing 12 birds each. All groups were fed with basal diet. The treatments were as follows: T0 (control), T1 (0.2% peppermint essential oil), T2 (0.2% eucalyptus essential oil), T3 (0.1% each of peppermint and eucalyptus essential oil) and T4 (0.05% each of peppermint and eucalyptus essential oil). After 5 weeks of feeding trial, one-week metabolic trial was carried out. Four birds were shifted to metabolic cages. Out of 7 days, first 4 days was given for adaptation followed by 3 days of collection period. The feed and faeces samples were collected and analysed. The results showed that dry matter utilization was significantly (p<0.05) higher in T1, T2 and T3, while the utilization of organic matter and ether extract was significantly (p<0.05) increased in T1 and T3. In case of crude protein all the essential oil supplemented groups showed significantly (p<0.05) higher utilization than the control group. Therefore, it can be concluded that the dietary supplementation of peppermint and eucalyptus essential oils in Japanese quails improved the nutrient utilization especially in groups T1 and T3.