A.E.G. Galal

Poultry Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71515, Egypt.

Abstract :

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of adding different dietary levels of cuttlebone meal (CBM) on the productive and reproduction performance of Japanese quail. A total number of 112 birds of the 6-weeks Japanese quail were used and randomly distributed on 4 treatments with 4 replicates per 7 birds (2 males and 5 females). The birds were fed by treatments the following treatment: the first treatment (a control 0.0 % CBM, the second treatment (0.5% CBM), third (1.0% CBM), and fourth treatment (1.5% CBM). Body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), feed consumption (FC), feed conversion ratio (FCR), egg laying rate, egg weight, egg mass, fertility, hatchability, weight of chicks hatch,  egg quality, and relative economic efficiency (REE) were estimated for the whole experimental period (10 weeks). It was observed that no significant effect on egg weight, egg mass, and feed intake due to addition CBM.  There were significant (P<0.05) increases in egg number and egg laying rate during experiment for birds treated with 0.5 % CBM  as compared with 0.0% and 1.5% CBM. And the best of FCR was observed in the same treatment (0.5% CBM.  No significant difference (P> 0.05) for yolk weight, eggshell weight, yolk percentage, albumen percentage, eggshell percentage, shape index, yolk index Haugh Unit (HU), shell thickness, width of egg, ESA and SWUSA between the treatments. However, albumen weight, increase significantly (P 0.05) due to addition 1.5% CBM comparing 0.5% CBM group. Insignificant differences in hatchability rate between the experimental treatments However, fertility rate increased significantly due to addition 0.5 and 1.5 CBM comparing the addition 1% CBM group and the body weight of chicks at hatch increase significantly (P<0.05)  due  to addition 1 and 1.5% CBM comparing the control group.

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