Effect of dietary supplementation of certain herbal agents and cholesterol lowering drug on egg production performance and egg quality of Japanese quail layers

An experiment was conducted in Japanese quail layers (n=200) for 10 weeks duration during peak production (14–24 wk of age) to evaluate the influence of dietary supplementation of garlic powder, tulsi oil, fenugreek seeds and drug ‘statin’ on egg production and cholesterol levels. Ten dietary treatments consisted of five high energy (2900 kcal/kg) diets with control diet without any additive (D₁), garlic powder (D₂, 1%), tulsi oil (D₃, 0.25%), fenugreek seeds (D₄, 2%) and statin, 2 mg/kg in diet (D₅) and corresponding five low energy (2500 kcal/kg) diets (D6-D10) were formulated following factorial (2 x 5) design. Each dietary treatment was assigned to 20 quails caged in duplicate. The results indicated that the drug statin significantly (P<0.05) lowered the egg production of quails along with poor FCR (P<0.05). The garlic powder supplementation at 1% level in diet lowered the cholesterol levels in egg yolk but did not influence the blood cholesterol level. The dietary energy levels did not affect the cholesterol level of both blood and egg. Higher triglyceride levels in blood were observed in fenugreek seeds supplemented group. The egg quality parameters viz. shape index shell weight, shell thickness, albumen index, yolk index and ICU also remained similar in all the dietary treatments. The study indicated garlic among the herbs studied was beneficial in lowering the egg cholesterol levels in quails whereas; drug statin (2mg/kg diet) was ineffective in influencing cholesterol content.