Performance and erythrocyte osmotic membrane stability of laying Japanese Quails (Coturnix coturnix japanica) fed varying dietary protein levels in a hot-humid tropics

Abstract

A thirteen week feeding trial was conducted to determine the effects of feeding varying levels of dietary protein on productive performance, egg quality traits, erythrocyte osmotic fragility and haematological parameters using 195 six weeks old laying quails. The birds were randomly allocated to five dietary treatment groups of thirty nine (39) birds each, and were further replicated three times with thirteen (13) birds per replicate. They were fed five experimental diets containing 17, 18, 19, 20 or 21%CP. Feed and water were provided ad libitum through out the experimental period. The results obtained showed significant (p<0.01) enhancement on percent hen-day egg production (HDEP), hen-housed egg production (HHEP), average daily feed intake, average daily protein intake and feed conversion ratio as the dietary protein level increased. Egg traits like egg size, yolk weight, yolk diameter, yolk index, albumen height, egg shell weight and shell thickness improved significantly (p<0.01) at higher protein levels (20 and 21%CP). However, egg width, yolk width, albumen weight and egg shape index were not significantly (p>0.05) affected by dietary protein levels. The cost of producing 1g of egg in the treatment groups were N0.32, N0.31, N0.29, N0.27 and N0.27 for 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21% dietary protein levels respectively. The haematological results indicated that the lowest haemolysis of 37.37 ± 6.81 % was recorded at 0.85 % NaCl concentration in quail placed on 21 % CP and this increases as the crude protein level decreases while the haematological parameters showed that the highest values was obtained for packed cell volume, haemaoglobin concentration, total erythrocyte count and total protein in the quail placed on 21 % CP while the lowest value (p < 0.05) was recorded in the group of quail placed on 17 % CP. It was thus, concluded from the results of this study that 21% CP is required in the diets of laying Japanese quails under a hot-humid tropical environment and also it was demonstrated for the first time, that high CP level up to 21 % maintain the erythrocyte membrane integrity thereby preventing oxidative stress and haemolysis and thus improves haematological parameters in quail tremendously and the study also shows direct correlation between protein intake and serum protein level.

Sexual Dimorphism on Haematological and Genetic Parameters of Japanese Quails

“…It also disagree with [42,43] which reported that male geese and budgerigars were shown to have higher values in most of their blood parameters relative to their female counterparts. Sex had significant (P<.05) difference on some of the heamatological parameters which agrees with those reported previously by several authors [37,49,52,53,54,55] which reported that sex has significant influence on Hb, RBC and MCHC with females having higher significant values than Males. The results obtained in this study for Hb disagrees with the observation of [39,51] which observed no significant difference in both sexes of the quails.…”

Performance and Egg Quality of Laying Hens Fed Ration Containing Coriander Seeds (Coriandrum sativum Linn)

“…This weight was not different from that reported by Bidura et al (2014) that egg weight of Lohmann brown at the age of 42-50 weeks was 58.12 g. Factors affecting egg weight are protein consumption (Tuleun & Adenkola, 2013) and age (Tserveni-Goussi & Fortomaris, 2011). According to Leeson & Summers (2005), protein and amino acids (especially methionine) are nutrients that have important roles in controlling of eggs size.…”

Effects of Dietary Protein Level and Betaine Supplementation on Nutrient Digestibility and Performance of Japanese Quails

“…These results are in agreement with those of Dos Santos et al (2016), who did not find any significant effect on feed intake or egg production of quails fed 16 or 20% CP. In addition, previous observations in Japanese quails determined that increasing dietary CP from 17 to 20% (Tuleun et al, 2013) or from 15 to 20% (Muhammad et al, 2016) did not affect egg production, but did improve feed conversion ratio. A recent study showed that increasing dietary CP from 18 to 24% did not affect egg production, egg weight, or feed conversion ratio in Japanese quails .…”