Indian Journal of Poultry Science

A study was conducted to understand the role of nitric oxide (NO) in feed intake regulation in Japanese quails Forty laying Japanese quails were allotted randomly to four different groups (n = 10). First, second and third group received L-arginine (NO-precursor; 50 g/kg basal diet) and sodium nitroprusside (NO-donor; 75 mg/kg basal diet) and L-NAME (Nitric Oxide Synthase-inhibitor; 150 μg/kg b.wt. intraperitonealy) respectively for 7 days and the fourth served as a control. All the four groups were maintained under uniform husbandry conditions and same basal diet was provided ab lib. Cumnlative feed intake (g/bird) was recorded at 30, 60, 90 minutes, 3 and 7 days of intervals for all the groups. A significant (P<0.05) difference in the feed intake was noticed between SNP and L-NAME treated groups in the 7th day cumulative feed intake. A positive correlation was found between 7th day cumulative feed intake and the serum nitrite and nitrate levels in all the treated and control groups. L-NAME has significantly rednced the serum nitrite and nitrate levels.