The current study aimed to assess the potential effects of biochar and propionic acid on production performance, and intestinal histomorphometry in Japanese quails. For this purpose, a completely randomized design randomly assigned 300, day-old birds to four treatment groups (T1, T2, T3, and T4). The T1 group received a basal diet and served as the control group while the T2 group received diet supplemented with  corn cob biochar (@2%), T3 group diet was supplemented with corn cob biochar (@1.5%) and propionic acid (@0.5%), and the T4 group was offered propionic acid (@0.5%) only for six weeks. The weekly weight gain, feed intake, and FCR were recorded during the trial. At the completion of the trial, birds were euthanized humanely, and the intestine was collected and processed for the morphological parameters (weight, length, width). Statistical analysis revealed that significant (P<0.05) variations were observed in body weight gain, feed intake, and FCR among the treatment groups supplemented with biochar and organic acids compared to the control. Histomorphometric analysis revealed significant (P<0.05) improvements in villus height, villus width, crypt depth, villus height to crypt depth ratio, villus surface area, and thickness of tunica muscularis and externa in all experimental groups compared to the basal diet group. It has been concluded that biochar and propionic acid has the potential to be used as growth promoters, leading to improved growth performance and gut morphometry in Japanese quails.

To Cite This Article: Usman M, Qureshi AS, Shahid RU and Deeba F, 2025. Impact of Biochar and Organic Acid-Enriched Diet on Growth Performance and Intestinal Histomorphometry in Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica). Pak Vet J, 45(1): 352-359. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2025.127