¹Uludag University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Animal Nutrition and Nutritional Diseases, TR-16059 Bursa - TURKEY
²Uludag University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Biochemistry, TR-16059 Bursa - TURKEY DOI : 10.9775/kvfd.2016.16438 The current study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with rosemary volatile oil on performance, meat quality and selected plasma antioxidant parameters of quails. A total of 192 1-day-old Pharaoh (Coturnix coturnix Pharaoh) quails, including both males and females, were divided into three groups containing 64 quails and treated as follows: (1) a control group with 0 mg volatile oil/kg of diet; (2) 200 mg/kg rosemary volatile oil plus-RVO1; and (3) 250 mg/kg rosemary volatile oil plus-RVO2. The diets were prepared fresh for each treatment. The experiment was carried out for 42 days. Dietary treatments did not have any significant effect on live weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion rate, hot and cold carcass yield. There were significant differences for the plasma MDA level (P<0.01) and meat MDA level (P≤0.001) between the control and treatment groups. Plasma SOD activity not affected by addition of rosemary volatile oil but plasma GPx level was significantly (P<0.01) affected by dietary treatments. In conclusion, rosemary volatile oil may be a potential natural antioxidant for quails and used to retard lipid oxidation in animal diets to improve meat products quality and animal performance. Keywords : Antioxidant, Performance, Quail, Rosemary, Volatile oil