Green tea leaves contain a wide range of active bio-compounds that are essential for sustainable quail intensification; however, its feed value is not known for the Jumbo quail. Therefore, this study evaluated the effect of different levels of green tea leaf powder (GTLP) on physiological and meat quality parameters of the Jumbo quail. One-week-old chicks (n = 350; 56.1 ± 2.12 g live-weight) were evenly distributed to 35 replicate pens and reared on five experimental diets formulated as follows: a standard grower diet with zinc-bacitracin (PosCon), a standard grower diet without zinc-bacitracin (NegCon), and NegCon diet treated with 10 (GT10), 25 (GT25) and 50 g/kg (GT50) of GTLP. Weight gain linearly decreased in week 2 but increased in week 4, whereas feed conversion efficiency linearly declined in weeks 2 and 3 as GTLP levels increased. Overall feed intake, carcass yield, and caecum and colon weights showed a linear increase with GTLP levels. Hematological parameters fell within the normal ranges reported for healthy quail. The GT10 group showed larger liver weights than the PosCon and NegCon groups. It was concluded that dietary inclusion of GTLP enhances overall feed intake and carcass performance but not feed efficiency, hematological and meat quality parameters of Jumbo quail.

The overuse and misuse of antibiotics in poultry feeds increase the total cost of production and compromise the quality of poultry products, which poses a serious threat to human health. Globally, health-conscious poultry consumers have long called for the alternate use of natural additives to mitigate the development and spread of multidrug resistant pathogens. Phytogenic plants, such as green tea (Camellia sinensis) products, contain putative nutraceuticals with antibiotic properties that can be used as alternatives to therapeutic, metaphylactic, prophylactic, and growth-promoting antibiotics. However, there are limited studies in the literature that have evaluated the potential of green tea (GT) products when used as replacements to in-feed antibiotics, with most studies focusing on their potential as sources of dietary nutrients in poultry feeds. Thus, this review paper discusses the potential of GT products to replace various antibiotics in poultry diets while presenting GT bioactive substances that can improve the growth performance, carcass and meat quality traits, and health status of the birds. We postulate that the utilisation of GT products in place of antibiotics could deliver sustainable, organic poultry production systems that would contribute significantly to global food and nutrition security.

The study investigated the effect of supplementing a grass ( spp.) hay basal diet with Eragrostis Ziziphus mucronata in vitro leaf meal (ZLM) on chemical composition and ruminal fermentation with or without the aid of polyethylene glycol (PEG). The grass hay was supplemented with ZLM at a rate of 0 (ZM0), 5 (ZM5), 10 (ZM10), 15 (ZM15), 20 (ZM20) and 25% w/w (ZM25). Positive linear trends (P<0.05) were observed for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), soluble phenolics (SCT) and total soluble phenolics (TSPh), except for organic matter (OM) that linearly declined as ZLM levels increased. Neutral detergent fibre quadratically (P<0.05) responded to ZLM levels, but no significant trends were observed for acid detergent fibre and lignin. Treatment ZM25 had higher (P0.05) cumulative gas production at 12, 24, 36 and 48 h post-inoculation. Supplementing the grass hay with ZLM had significant (P<0.05) influence on fermentation kinetics. The inoculation with PEG resulted in a negative quadratic trend for the partitioning factor at 96 h post-incubation [ = 326.0(±39.49) y̵20.01(±6.962) + 0.785(±0.262) ], from which an optimum ZLM supplementation rate was calculated to bex x2 13%. It was concluded that ZLM can be used as a protein source, and with the aid of PEG, it can maximize ruminal fermentation efficiency of grass hay when included at 130 g/kg.