INFLUENCE OF GINGER AS AN ANTIOXIDANT ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF MALE QUAIL STRESSED BY HYDROGEN PEROXIDE

Abstract

This research was carried out to find out the ability of crushed dry ginger (Zingiber officinale) to recover or prevent the impacts of oxidative stress that is induced by hydrogen peroxide by studying some hematological and productive traits of quail. One hundred fifty sexed male quail (21 days old) were randomly distributed into five groups of 30 birds each (3 replicates). G1: control; G2: H2O2 group; G3: ginger group; G4: H2O2+ginger from the beginning of the experiment; G5: H2O2+ginger after the 2nd week from the beginning of the experiment. Blood samples were collected at the age of 56 days, and the results showed that the addition of H2O2 led to a significantly increased (p≤0.05) feed consumption compared with other groups and enhanced significantly the feed conversion ratio compared with ginger and the control. Also, H2O2 caused a significant increase in blood glucose levels compared to the ginger group and a significant elevation in cholesterol and triglycerides compared with other groups, while PCV%, hemoglobin, and lymphocytes decreased significantly, which led to a significant elevation in the stress index in comparison to the ginger group. As for the impact of ginger, it was opposite to the effect of hydrogen peroxide, as it significantly reduced feed consumption and lowered blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides, which led to an improvement in the blood picture and a decrease in the value of the stress index for the birds that ate ginger alone or the birds in the groups that ate ginger with hydrogen peroxide.