Evaluation of the effect of colostrum in diet on intestinal microbial flora of Japanese quail

Addition of natural nutritional compounds including colostrum in the diet can be useful for quail. The aim of this study was evaluation of the effect of colostrum in diet on intestinal microbial flora of Japanese quail.

120 Japanese quails were tested in a completely randomized design using a diet without colostrum, a diet with 2% cow's colostrum and 4% cow's colostrum in 3 treatments and 4 replications and 10 Japanese quails in each replication. After a period of 42 days, two quails were selected from each replicate. Then, a piece of the ileum of each bird was examined to count the population of lactobacillus and coliform.

Quails fed with 4% colostrum had the highest total counts of lactobacillus (p< 0.05) and lowest total counts of coliform bacteria among the experimental groups (p>0.05).  Also, the treatment group fed with 2% colostrum also showed an overall increase and decrease in the population of lactobacilli and coliform bacteria compared to the control group (p>0.05).         

The use of pasteurized cow colostrum in amounts of 2% and 4% in the diet of Japanese quail increases the total count of lactobacilli and reduces the total population of coliform bacteria, which can be used as a new nutrient to improve the intestinal microbial flora in the diet of farmed poultry.