Effects of Rosemary and Fennel Essential Oil Mix on Performance and Meat Lipid Oxidation in Quails

This study was conducted to determine the effect of essential oil mixtures (rosemary and fennel) added to the quail ration on the performance, carcass parameters (hot and cold carcass weight, carcass yield), butter and breast pH, meat colour (L*, a*, b*) and meat Malondialdehyde (MDA) level. A total of 240 Pharaoh quails (Coturnix Coturnix Pharaoh) were equally divided into three main groups containing 80 quails. Each main group was divided into 5 subgroups, each consisting of 16 animals. The study included a control treatment with no diet additives, and the treatments were as follows: 100 mg/kg rosemary and 100 mg/kg fennel essential oil (group I), 200 mg/kg rosemary and 200 mg/kg fennel volatile oil (group II) were added. The experiment was carried out for 42 days. At the end of the study, the live weight gain of group II that rosemary and fennel volatile oil were added to the rations at 200 mg/kg level, was higher than control group. Also, feed consumption and feed conversion rate of group II were statistically improved compared to both control and group I. Similarly, meat L*, a* and b* values of group II were differed significantly from the other groups. Ration enriched with rosemary and fennel volatile oil mixtures resulted in significant improvements in meat MDA value on 15 days compared to the control group (p<0.01). The differences between the other parameters determined in the study were not statistically significant. In conclusion, it was concluded that rosemary and fennel essential oil mixture could be used as natural feed additive substance at 200 mg/kg in quail rations in order to improve performance and meat quality parameters