Assessment of Egg Sensory Quality in Quails Fed with a Diet Containing Betel Leaf (Piper betle L.) Meal and Extract

T he use of antibiotic feed additives that increase im- munity, ration efficiency, and growth promoters has been prohibited, especially in poultry feed.The reason for the ban on the use of antibiotics in the ration is because it causes resistance to bacterial strains (Chattopadhyay, 2014).The decline in livestock performance due to the prohibition of antibiotics as feed additives causes farmers to experience economic losses.Many alternative antibiotics have been used to overcome this, including herbal plants with secondary metabolite compounds that act as antibacterial (Vlaicu et al., 2021) and function as medicine (Alexis et al., 2020).Studies on the use of betel (Piper betle L.) leaf meal in chickens increased the population of non-pathogenic bacteria and reduced the population of pathogenic bacteria in the intestines (Pradikdo et al., 2019), increased body weight gain, improved feed efficiency, and reduced production costs (Patagao and Gannapao, 2006).In another study, the inclusion of betel leaf extract in broiler chickens was able to substitute Zn-bacitracin and improve nitrogen retention and ration metabolizable energy (Sudrajat et al. 2015).Research on the effect of Piper betle in feed on quail egg quality is still rare.The study conducted by Eka Widjaya et al. ( 2018), supplementing with betel leaf infusion resulted in a significant increase in egg weight, a decrease in eggshell weight, and an increase in egg albumin weight.While, there was no discernible difference in the other fac- Short communicationAbstract | Betel leaves contain phenolic compounds that are useful as antimicrobials, so they are widely used as additional feed in livestock rations.The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of betel leaf meal and extract on the sensory quality of quail eggs.The design used was a Completely Randomized Design with three treatments, which were then analyzed by the Kruskal-Wallis test.The variables observed were hedonic tests with a 5-point hedonic scale and hedonic quality (egg yolk color, egg white color, flavor, taste, and texture of quail eggs).This treatment showed that in the preference test, the ratio of betel leaf meal content had a significant (P < 0.05) effect on the color of the egg yolk.Nevertheless, in terms of hedonic quality, the proportion of betel leaf meal content markedly (P < 0.05) influenced texture.Additionally, the inclusion of rations containing betel leaf extract substantially diminished the fishy odor of eggs.The color of the egg yolk, when supplemented with betel leaf meal, was preferred over that with betel leaf extract.Similarly, in the hedonic quality assessment, the use of betel leaf powder resulted in a texture that was comparatively more chewy than that observed in other treatments.These results demonstrate that supplementation of betel leaves in quail's diet has beneficial effects on the sensory quality of eggs.