Effects of quail feed supplementation with essential oil components on fly production from poultry manure

LYNCH IANNIELLO I., LABAQUE C., BATTAN M., MARIN R.H., GLEISER R.M.

Córdoba

Jornada; XVII Jornadas de la Sociedad de Biología de Córdoba; 2009

Funcional foods are products that provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition. Several essential oils (EO) have bioactivities on animal physiology and metabolism (antioxidants, anticholes-terolemics), are antimicrobians, insecticides, among other. The aim of this research was to evaluate if the modification of quail diet (supplementing it with EO thymol and isoeugenol) could have an effect on another sanitary and economic poultry related problem: the production of flies in poultry litter. Samples of manure deposited in the previous 0 to 48 hs by quail that were fed with a supplementation of 400 mg thymol, isoeugenol or butylated hydroxytoluene (control) per kg of feed were collected. Each 200g sample (6 replicates per treatment) was incubated in a glass container inside an emergence cage. Cages were imnspected daily and adult flies that emerged were collected for 40 days. The effect of quail feed supplementation on the total number of emerging flies and on the number of specimens from the 3 most frequent species (Ophyra aenescens, Muscina stabulans and Musca domestica) were assessed. Significantly less fly emerged from manure from the isoeugenol treatment, suggesting that the modification of the quail diet with this component may have a moderate insecticidal effect against these insects.