Effect of Adding Different Levels of Vitamin D₃ to Diet and its Relationship to Qualitative Traits and Hatchability for Japanese Quail

Abstract

A study was conducted to understand the effect of adding different levels of vitamin D to the diet of Japanese quail and its relation to qualitative traits and hatchability. The duration of the experiment was 8 weeks. 240 birds (180 females + 60 males) were used on the basis of homogenization, at the age of (45) days, from Japanese quail; The birds were randomly distributed into 4 treatments, each containing 3 replicates, 15 females and 5 males for each replicate, as the birds were raised in floor cages inside the hall. The experimental treatments were distributed as follows: T1: Males and Females feed in diet free from additives D3 control diet) T2: Adding D3 by 50 mg kg - feed from D3 T3: Adding D3 by 100 mg kg -1 m -1 feed from D3 T4: Adding D3 by 150 mg kg feed from D3. The results showed a significant improvement (P ≤ 0.05) in some qualitative characteristics of the egg during the first and second period and the average of the two periods for the treatments compared with the control treatment from the experiment. While the results showed that there were no significant differences in the characteristics of fertility and hatching for each of the first and second hatching, and the rate of hatching for the two treatments compared with the treatment control of the experiment.