Growth response and egg production of Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) fed diets containing varying levels of fermented cassava (Manihot esculenta) peel meal

Abstract

A two phased study was conducted to determine the effect of feeding varying levels of fermented cassava (Manihot esculenta) peel meal as a replacement for maize on the growth performance and egg production of Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) using 300 two weeks old growing Japanese quail chicks with an initial mean body weight of 26.67g of both sexes. Fermented cassava peel meal was prepared by soaking fresh cassava peels in twice its weight of water for three days. The peels were put in a jute bag and kept for 12 hours under a local hydraulic press and then sun-dried before being coarsely milled. The birds were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments with 75 birds per treatment, each replicated thrice designated T1, T2, T3 and T4 containing 0, 25, 50, and 75% of fermented cassava peel meal (FCPM) as a replacement for the dietary maize respectively. The crude protein level was set at 24% in the growing phase. The parameters measured in the first six weeks (growing phase) were feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and nutrient digestibility. The results showed significant (P<0.05) difference in daily feed intake, while daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio showed no significant (P>0.05) difference among the treatment means. There were significant (P<0.05) differences in nutrient digestibility of the birds among the treatment groups. The second phase (laying) involved 120 female quails, after sexing and were allotted to 4 dietary treatments with 30 birds per treatment, replicated thrice and was fed with diets set at crude protein level of 20% with the same levels of replacement of maize as was in phase 1 which lasted for 8 weeks. The parameters measured were daily feed intake, hen-day production, hen-house-production and egg quality traits such as egg weight, egg length, egg width, egg shape index, yolk weight, yolk width, shell thickness, yolk index, Haugh unit, yolk height, albumen height and albumen weight. The results showed that there were no significant (P>0.05) differences in the daily feed intake, hen-day production, hen-house-production and all the egg quality traits. Therefore, it was concluded that dietary maize could be replaced with FCPM up to 50% level without any deleterious effect on the growth performance while up to 75% level could be used to replace dietary maize in the diet of laying Japanese quail without any adverse effect on egg production and egg quality traits.