Abstract
Bovine meat and bone meal (MBM) has been used as a low-cost protein source in corn- and soybean meal-based poultry diets. However, to date, no studies investigating the effect of the dietary inclusion of MBM on the performance of Japanese quails and on egg production costs were found in literature. In this study, 600 Japanese quails in lay were distributed in a completely randomized experimental design consisting of six treatments (replacement levels of soybean meal by MBM:0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5%) with five replicates of 20 birds each to investigate if MBM is a viable alternative to maintain or to improve the live and economic performances of these birds. Treatments consisted of a control diet, based on corn and soybean meal, with no inclusion of MBM, and diets formulated with increasing levels (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5%) of MBM inclusion at the expense of soybean meal. The studied parameters were evaluated in four periods of 28 days each. Live performance parameters (egg weight, g; average egg production, %; egg weight, g; feed intake, g; feed conversion ratio per egg mass, kg/kg and per dozen eggs, dz/kg; and livability, %); egg quality parameters (proportion of egg components, yolk, albumen, eggshell %; egg specific weight, g/cm3); and economic parameter (bio-economic nutritional index) were determined. Only egg weight, egg specific weight, and eggshell percentage were affected (p<0.05) by the treatments. Our results show that inclusion of bovine meat and bone meal can be added to the diet of Japanese quails in lay, causing no performance losses and promoting feed cost savings up to 5.24%.
Highlights
The commercial production of Japanese quail eggs has greatly developed as an alternative to chicken eggs, as that species presents rapid growth rate, early maturity, high egg production, and low feed intake, and the wide acceptance of their products by consumers created a niche market (Murakami and Ariki, 1998).Nutrition is the main factor influencing poultry production, and nutritional management needs to ensure good bird performance and high product quality (Costa, Romanelli & Trabuco, 2010)
Our results show that inclusion of bovine meat and bone meal can be added to the diet of Japanese quails in lay, causing no performance losses and promoting feed cost savings up to 5.24%
Meat and bone meal is used as an alternative protein source in the diet of broilers and laying chickens; its inclusion depends on the knowledge of their quality, price, and effect on animal performance, including feed intake, feed conversion ratio, weight gain, etc. (Faria Filho et al, 2002)
Summary
The commercial production of Japanese quail eggs has greatly developed as an alternative to chicken eggs, as that species presents rapid growth rate, early maturity, high egg production, and low feed intake, and the wide acceptance of their products by consumers created a niche market (Murakami and Ariki, 1998).Nutrition is the main factor influencing poultry production, and nutritional management needs to ensure good bird performance and high product quality (Costa, Romanelli & Trabuco, 2010). Other advantages of the dietary inclusion of bovine MBM, in addition to its nutritional content, are the improvement of feed odor, flavor, and texture, increasing feed palatability, as well as their safety, as it does not contain allergens or antinutritional factors, allowing its use for a wide range of livestock diets (Pereira-Da-Silva and Pezzato, 2000). This suggests that the partial replacement of soybean meal by bovine MBM in laying Japanese quail diets may be an alternative to ensure proper nutrition at a lower cost. Because their nutritional requirements are different (Silva et al, 2002), research on the replacement of those feedstuffs in Japanese quail diets is required
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