Relationship of arginine with lysine in diets for laying Japanese quails

Abstract

To determine the relationship of arginine with lysine for Japanese quails during the period of production, an experiment was conducted using 360 subspecies of Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) with 162 days of age, distributed in a completely randomized design. Diets were formulated with corn, soybean meal, sorghum and wheat bran containing 20.0% crude protein and 2,800 kcal ME/kg. The basal diet contained suboptimal level of lysine equal to 1% and was supplemented with five levels of L-arginine 99% (0.032; 0.083; 0.134; 0.185 and 0.236%) to replace the glutamic acid, corresponding to the relationship of arginine with digestible lysine of 1.16, 1.21, 1.26, 1.31 and 1.36. The parameters studied were: feed intake, egg production per hen/day, egg production per hen housed, commercial egg production, egg weight, egg mass, feed conversion by egg mass, feed conversion per dozen eggs, weight and percentage of components of the eggs (yolk, albumen and shell) and specific gravity. There was no significant effect on the relationship of arginine with digestible lysine in the diet of Japanese quails for any of the parameters examined. The arginine/lysine ratio of 1.16, which corresponds to a daily intake of 288.84 mg of arginine, provides satisfactory performance and egg quality of Japanese quails

Digestible arginine concentrations in the diet of Japanese quails

“…AEW was 11.90 g, which is consistent with the results of Reis et al (2012), who found no significant effect of different digestible arginine concentrations on the AEW of birds.…”

“…The average ELR found in this study was 91.90%. The lack of an effect is consistent with the findings of Reis et al (2012), who evaluated arginine concentrations in egg-laying Japanese quails.…”

“…Similar results were obtained by Reis et al (2012), who found no significant effect of different arginine:lysine ratios on feed intake by Japanese quails fed diets containing different concentrations of arginine.…”

“…They observed that FCEM and FCDE were not significantly affected by arginine concentrations. Reis et al (2012) and Souza (2009) found similar results using different digestible arginine concentrations.…”

“…These results corroborate those found by Santos (2013), who used a total arginine concentration between 0.945% and 1.755% with 147-day-old quails and found no effect of supplementation on EM. Similarly, Reis et al (2012) found no effect of arginine:lysine ratios on EM when studying Japanese quail hens. By contrast, Souza (2009) observed a positive linear response of EM as the arginine:lysine ratio increased from 0.9 to 1.1:1.0…”