COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF DRY EXTRACT OF TRIBULUS TERRESTRIS ON LIVER’S HISTOSTRUCTURE OF GUINEA FOWL AND JAPANESE QUAIL

Abstract

A comparative study of the effect of the Bulgarian product Vemo Herb (dry extract of Tribulus terrestris) produced on the histological structure of liver in Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) and Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) was carried out with 2 groups (control and experimental) from both poultry species: 15 Pearl-gray Guinea fowls (12 females and 3 males) per group, and 17 Japanese quails – Pharaon breed (13 females and 4 males) per group. The poultry in the experimental groups received 10 mg/kg body weight/day of the tested additive. The trial lasted 11 weeks (1 week of preparatory and 10 weeks of experimental period). It was found that VemoHerb-T in a daily dose of 10 mg·kg body weight causes a high degree of liver fat dystrophy in male and female poultry from both species. There were no significant differences in the liver histological structure between males and females from both species. Significant effect of the additive is observed on body weight in both male and female Guinea fowls, weight of liver in both male and female Japanese quails and liver’s histostructure of the two species – being higher in Japanese quails.