Mahboubeh Rostami Angas, Hamidreza Mohammadian Tabrizi, Ahmad Sodagar Amiri and Mehdi Mobarhan Mozhdehi
This research was conducted to investigate the effects of tarragon extract on performance, carcass quality and hematologic parameters in male Japanese quail over a period of 42 days. In this study, 360, one day old, male Japanese quail chicks are used in a completely randomized manner. 6 experimental treatments and 4 replications are performed on 15 quail chicks in each replication. Treatments in this study include: 1) The basal diet with antibiotics, 2) The basal diet without antibiotics, 3) The basal diet + 0.5% tarragon extract, 4) The basal diet +1% tarragon extract, 5) The basal diet +1.5% tarragon extract and 6) basal diet +2% tarragon extract. Performancerelated characteristics, including feed intake, weight gain, and feed conversion ratio are measured weekly. The results indicate that the treatment containing 1.5% tarragon extract does not make a significant difference in feed intake compared with the control treatment. Also, in the treatment with 0.5% tangent extract showed no significant difference in weight gain compared with the control treatment. Conversion ratio was meaningful in some weeks. The best conversion ratio was related to the treatments containing 0.5% and 1% tarragon extract which did not have a significant difference with the control treatment over the whole period of the experiment. Investigation of the carcass characteristics shows that the treatment with 0.5% tarragon extract led to the highest carcass weight and breast weight. But no significant difference observed in the weight of the liver, heart, and thigh. There wasn't any significant difference in hematologic parameters either
