Egg productivity in the quails fed on the extract of Calendula Officinalis

Abstract

In the last decades, in the majority of the developed countries of the world, one of the trends in obtaining food products, including those of animal origin, has been obtaining organic products that do not contain artificial ingredients: antibiotics, growth promoters, GMOs, or any other biologically active substances of other than the natural origin. Currently, phytobiotics, i.e., active components of various plants are successfully used as their substitutes for preserving the health of animals and poultry, and for improving their productivity. The authors have studied the effect of the extract of Calendula Officinalis obtained at the Agroecology scientific laboratory of the Kemerovo SAI using the method of water-ethanol extraction followed by low temperature drying on the egg productivity of Manchurian quails. It has been found that out of the three dosages of the preparation used in the experiment (800 mg, 1,600 mg and 2,400 mg per 1 kg of feed) the maximum positive effect on the studied parameters (egg production, morphological and chemical composition of eggs, feed used for the production of 10 eggs, poultry preservation rate) was observed for the dosage of Calendula Officinalis being equal to 800 mg/kg of feed.