98 THE EFFECT OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION OF LEMON GRASS (Cymbopogon citratus) ON PERFORMANCE, CARCASS QUALITY, AND MARKETING OF QUAIL (Coturnix coturnix japonica) Savaş SARIÖZKAN 1 , Yusuf KONCA 2* , Berrin KOCAOĞLU GÜÇLÜ 3 , Eray AKTUĞ 3 Mahmut KALİBER 2 , Şeyda ÖZKAN 4 , Saadet TUĞRUL AY 5 1 Erciyes University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Dept. of Animal Health Economics and Management, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey 2 Erciyes University Faculty of Agriculture, Dept. of Animal Science, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey 3 Erciyes University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Dept. of Animal Nutrition and Nutritional Diseases, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey 4 Erciyes University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Division of Animal Husbandry and Animal Nutrition, Kayseri, Turkey 5 West Akdeniz Agricultural Research Institute, 07110 Antalya, Turkey *Corresponding author email: yusufkonca@yahoo.com Abstract This study was conducted to determine the effects of supplementation of lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) leaf meal on performance, carcass quality traits, and marketing of quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica). A total of 150, four-day- old quail were distributed into three groups with five replicates and 10 quail each. Quail were fed either basal diet (Control group) or 1.5% and 3% lemon grass leaf meal supplemented to basal diets for 5 weeks period. Live weight, live weight gain and feed consumption were recorded and feed efficiency was calculated at the 7 th , 21 st , and 35 th days of the study. At the end of the experiment, carcass traits were also determined. Lemon grass supplementation ratio did not affect live weight and live weight gain (P>0.05) at 1.5% level however, 3% supplementation decreased live weight (P<0.05). Feed consumption and feed conversion ratio were not affected by lemon grass supplementation. In 3% supplemented group, intestine weight and ratio decreased (P<0.05). Lemon grass supplementation did not affect slaughter weight, carcass weight, dressing percentage, liver and gizzard weight and ratio (p>0.05). Also, meat pH, cooking loss, thawing loss, dry matter, ash and protein ratio were not affected by lemon grass supplementation (P>0.05). According to economic evaluation, supplementation of lemon grass did not improve the performance and carcass quality of quail and so, revenue from the lemon grass supplemented groups were lower than those of the control group. In conclusion, higher level supplementation of lemon grass (3%) to quail diet negatively affected the performance; however the lower level (1.5%) had no negative effect on performance and carcass quality. Key words: Carcass, Lemon grass, performance, quail, Revenue. INTRODUCTION Due to increases in population, income and living standards, consumers’ demand shifts to higher quality, various, and more poultry meat consumption. The poultry industry is presently studying on alternatives to meet these consumers’ demands. Also, scientists are trying much more efforts to respond to these expectations. On the other hand, they want to make sure this does not decrease the quality of the end product or ignore animal welfare. Nowadays, increasing of consumer awareness for safety poultry products and from stable to table approach tended the consumers’ preferences towards to healthy animals’ products. Performance enhancers until recently called growth promoters are used to improve animal growth rate and/or feed conversion ratio. One of the feed additives used to increase the performance of poultry are herbs. Herbs are the dried leaves of aromatic plants, usually found without stems (Peter, 2012). In particular, with the ban on the use of antibiotics to increase growth, studies on plant-based alternatives have increased. Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus, LG) contains flavonoids, phenolic compounds, terpenoids (Burkill, 1996) and essential oils (such as citral α, citral β, nerol geraniol, citronellal, terpinolene, geranyl acetate, myrecene and terpinol methylheptenone) which Scientiic Works. Series C. Veterinary Medicine. Vol. LXII (1) ISSN 2065-1295; ISSN 2343-9394 (CD-ROM); ISSN 2067-3663 (Online); ISSN-L 2065-1295