Hassan Habibi

We conducted a study to explore the impact of Persian Gulf algae derivatives, phycocyanin (PC) and fucoidan (FUC), on the production performance and digestive tract characteristics of laying Japanese quail. We utilized a total of 200 six-week-old Japanese quails, which were divided into five treatment groups, each with four replicates containing 10 birds, following a completely randomized design. In our experiment, the treatment groups received PC (sourced from Spirulina platensis) and FUC (extracted from brown seaweed) in their drinking water, while the control groups did not receive these additives. Treatment groups received PC and FUC at 20 or 40 mg/L levels (denoted as PC20, PC40, FUC20, and FUC40, respectively). All quails were provided with the same diet throughout the study. Remarkably, all treatment groups exhibited significant improvements in the percentage of hen day egg production (HDEP), egg mass, and feed conversion ratio (FCR). However, there were no observable differences in egg weight and feed intake between the treatment and control groups. Furthermore, the weights of various components of the digestive tract, including the liver, spleen, proventriculus, gizzard, pancreas, and oviduct, remained unaffected by the treatments. In conclusion, our study demonstrates the favorable effects of phycocyanin (PC) and fucoidan (FUC) on the production performance of laying Japanese quail.