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ITALIAN JOURNAL OF ANIMAL SCIENCE
Taylor & Francis
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| Abstract: |
The experiment assessed the influence of using prodigiosin as a new feed additive on growth
performance, carcase traits, digestibility of nutrients, digestive enzymes, blood metabolites and
intestinal microbiota of growing quails. Two hundred and fifty one-week-old quails were randomly
distributed into five groups with five replications for each one. The 1st group was fed on
the basal diet (BD, 0 mL prodigiosin) only and was considered the control group. Whereas the
2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th groups were fed on the BD containing 1, 2, 3 and 4 mL prodigiosin/kg
diet, respectively. The main findings included significant improvement of the quail’s growth performance
with the dietary presence of prodigiosin at levels more than 1 mL/kg diet. Significant
increases in digestive enzyme activity as well as significant decreases in intestinal pH and caecal
microbiota counts were achieved with prodigiosin. The prodigiosin dietary supplementation
reduced plasma total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and very low-density
lipoprotein (VLDL) but a marked increase in high-intensity lipoprotein levels (HDL) concentration
was reported. Prodigiosin also significantly increased the immunoglobulins, complement,
lysozyme and antioxidant levels such as total antioxidant capacity (TAC), superoxide dismutase
(SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), along with a marked
reduction of malondialdehyde (MDA) level in quail plasma. The net revenue and economic efficiency
of treated quails was significantly increased with prodigiosin supplementation; the best
values were observed in prodigiosin 2 mL/kg diet. Therefore, based on the results obtained, prodigiosin
can be effectively used as a nutritional supplement, and the optimal level was 2 mL/kg
of diet.
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