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JOURNAL OF THE HELLENIC VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY, no.1, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of diatery addition or oral intake of Japanese mint volatile oil (M. arvensis) on growth performance, rumen parameters, fecal characteristics and fecal microbiology of Saanen kids. Twenty-four male and female kids60 +/- 5 d age and11.43kg body weight (BW) were randomly divided into three groups (n = 8). Japanese mint volatile oil was not added to the control group. In the research, Japanese mint volatile oil was either added to the feed at 200 mg/kg level (Group I) or orally given (Group II) to the Saanen kids while no treatment was applied to control group. The animals were weighed at the begining and the endof the study. Rumen and fecal samples were collected at the end of the study. While pH, NH3N, volatile fatty acid (VFA) and protozoa were examined in rumen content, pH and microorganism population were examined in fecal content. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in live weight (LW), live weight gain (LWG), average daily gain (ADG), daily dry matter intake (DMI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) between the control and experimental groups. There were no differences in the rumen pH, faecal pH, rumen NH3N and faecal score of the control and experimental groups.In the study, there were no significant differences between the control and experimental groups detected in terms of faecal microorganism population, while salmonella was detected in one of the control group faecal sample. Addition of Japanese mint volatile oil to kids diet caused significant decreases in rumen isobutyric acid (P<0.05), butyric acid (P=0.003), isovaleric acid (P=0.005) and total VFA (P< 0.05) values. It was determined that the use of Japanese mint by adding to the diet in kids diet caused a significant decrease (P=0.004) in the distribution of Entodinium and a significant increase (P <= 0.001) in the distribution of Epidinium from rumen protozoa. The use of mint oil by drinking and adding to the feed caused a significant difference in the total number of protozoa. A significant increase (P <= 0.05) in the total number of protozoa was detected with the addition of Japanese mint volatile oil by drinking (oral administration).In this study, it was determined that the addition of Japanese mint oil to the kids showed a positive trend on the ADG parameter. Also, the decrease in the number of pathogenic microorganisms E.coli and Salmonella in this study supports the antimicrobial effect of of Japanese mint volatile oil. In summary, the results of this study show that Japanese mint, which is natural and does not carry residual risk, can contribute to performance and support health criteria in kids after weaning.