IMPACT OF DIETARY PROTEIN LEVEL AND FEED ADDITIVES ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS TRAITS OF JAPANESE QUAIL

Abstract

: A study was performed to investigate the effect of dietary protein level and addition of yeast or exogenous enzymes on growth performance and carcass characteristics of Japanese quail. A factorial completely randomized design (3×3), three dietary protein levels (24, 21.6 and 19.2%) without or with two feed additives was used. Five hundred and forty quails were randomly divided into nine groups, kept in cages, fed their respective experimental diets and managed similarly from 2 to 6 weeks of age. The obtained results illustrated that growth performance of quails did not affected by dietary protein level. Quails fed enzyme-enriched diets achieved better feed conversion than the control birds. Feeding yeast-supplemented diets improved the final body weight and weight gain of quails compared with the control birds. Economic efficiency of feeding (EEF) and carcass characteristics were not influenced by dietary protein level, feed additives and their interaction. In conclusion, decreasing dietary CP level from 24 to 19.2% does not compromise the growth performance, economic efficiency or carcass traits of quails. Dietary yeast supplementation has a beneficial effect on growth performance of quails, regardless of dietary CP level.