A total number of 400 Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japanica) chicks at hatch. The quail chicks were housed in cages at hatch up to 42 days of age. The experiment aimed to study the response of growing Japanese quail to different levels of fennel seeds meal. Quail chicks were divided randomly into four equal experimental treatments (100 in each treatment) and randomly divided into four equal replicates (25 chicks / replicate).The first treatment was fed the basal diet as a control, while the other three treatments were fed the basal diet supplemented with the fennel seeds meal (as medicinal plants), at levels of 0.25, 0.50 or 0.75 g/kg diet, respectively. The experimental diets were iso-caloric (2900 kcal ME/kg), iso-nitrogenous (24% CP) and iso- fibrous (3.01%).
The results obtained could be summarized as follows
Live body weight and body weight gain of quail chicks were significantly (P<0.05) increased with dietary feed fennel seeds meal (FSM). The highest live body weight and body weight gain were recorded by using fennel seeds meal, while, those fed the control diet recorded the lowest values.
It is worth noting that feed intake significantly (P<0.05) increased among treatments, compared to the control diet.
Fed diet containing 0.50 g/kg FSM recorded the best values (P<0.05) of feed conversion ratio (FCR) (g feed/g gain). Mortality rate recorded a non-significant difference between treatments.
Dressing percentage showed significant (P<0.05) increase with the feed additives, while edible giblets (liver, heart and gizzard) percentage was insignificantly increased by FSM.
Digestibility coefficients of OM, CP, CF, EE, NFE and the nutritive values expressed as DCP, TDN % and ME (kcal/kg) were significantly varied (P<0.05) among the different experimental treatments. Fed diet containing 0.50 g/kg diet FSM showed the best net return as well as the highest value of economic efficiency among experimental treatments.