Growth Performance and the Intestine Morphometry of Japanese Quail That Fed Diets Supplemented With Vitamin E and Selenium

Abstract

Background: Small intestine and peripheral organs are the main organs for digestion and absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. OBJECTIVES: To investigate effects of different levels of Vitamin E and Selenium on growth performance and small intestine morphometry in Japanese quail. METHODS: A total of 405 mixed sex Japanese quails were randomly allocated into 9 experimental groups by 3×3 factorial design (3 replications and 15 chicken per pen) using Vitamin E (0, 150 and 300 mg/kg) and sodium Selenium (0, 0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg feed) for the entire study. Then, feed intake, body weight gain and food conversion ratio were recorded on days 17-21, 22-35 and 17-35 of the study. At day 35 of the study, 3 birds were randomly selected from each replication, slaughtered and various sections of small intestine (10, 50 and 90% of small intestine length) sampled for morphometry characteristics. Villi height and crypts depth were measured microscopically. RESULTS: According to the results, different levels of Vitamin E and Selenium supplements had no effect on growth performance (P>0.05). Also, supplementation of diet with Vitamin E and Selenium significantly increased villi height and crypts depth in various sections of small intestine on day 35 (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest Vitamin E and Selenium supplemented diets had beneficial effect on small intestine morphometry characteristics in Japanese quail. Keywords: