Table 3.

Effect of different levels of thyme essential oil and antibiotic on carcass characteristics in 35-d aged quail (expressed as % of live BW)¹

Treatments	Liver	Heart	Carcass	Breast	Tights	Gastrointestinal tract3
Control	2.25	0.80	59.39	29.97	20.75	8.28
Antibiotic2	2.00	0.85	61.44	29.71	20.89	8.73
T200	2.07	0.84	62.02	30.74	21.10	7.39
T300	2.41	0.84	59.03	29.24	20.75	8.88
T400	2.56	0.82	58.66	27.81	20.30	8.00
P-value4	0.701	0.858	0.671	0.546	0.701	0.786
SEM	0.352	0.041	2.203	0.834	0.659	0.663
P-value for contrasts4
Control vs. antibiotic	0.977	0.864	0.945	0.999	0.999	0.996
Control vs. T200	0.993	0.915	0.876	0.980	0.997	0.950
Control vs. T300	0.996	0.891	0.999	0.985	1.000	0.987
Control vs. T400	0.957	0.986	0.998	0.554	0.992	0.999
Antibiotic vs. T200	0.999	0.999	0.999	0.945	0.999	0.815
Antibiotic vs. T300	0.880	1.000	0.905	0.997	0.999	0.999
Antibiotic vs. T400	0.718	0.989	0.852	0.665	0.978	0.976

¹All data are average of 5 replicates.

²Antibiotic is 100 ppm flavophospholipol. T200, T300, and T400 indicate the levels of 200, 300, and 400 ppm of Thymus vulgaris essential oil.

³Gastrointestinal tract includes the total weight of the crop, gizzard, caecum, and intestines.

⁴Significance level (P < 0.05) by 95% confidence interval.