The effects of safflower oil on growth performance, meat quality, carcass composition and oxidative stress in Japanese quails

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of the addition of SFO (Chartamus tinctorius L.) to dietary of Japanese quail on growth performance, meat quality, carcass composition, and oxidative stress. A total of 40 Japanese quails at ten days of age were used as material and divided into four groups comprising ten birds. The experiment was continued for 35 days. The control group was fed with a diet including no additives, while 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3% SFO were added to the feed of the other groups. For this purpose, the effects of SFO on body weight and average daily weight gain of quails, feed consumption (FC) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of quails, slaughter and carcass piece weights of quails, breast meat quality characteristics, breast meat color characteristics and stress parameters were investigated. There was no significant (P>0.05) difference between the groups in terms of body weight (BW), daily body weight gain (DBWG), daily feed consumption (DFC), FCR, carcass, and slaughter characteristics, color, and pH values. It was found that the addition of SFO significantly reduced total oxidative status (TOS) (P<0.05) and increased total antioxidant status (TAS) (P<0.01) in blood. The results indicated that the addition of SFO to quail diets would be useful as an additive improving TAS (P<0.01) and reducing TOS values (P<0.05), although SFO addition did not change the feeding performance and carcass characteristics of quails.