Effect of dietary banana leaves (Musa acuminata) with multienzyme complex supplementation on intestinal content, serum biochemicals, egg production, and egg quality in laying quail

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of adding different amounts of dried banana leaves (BL) with or without multienzyme to laying quail diets on egg production (EP), feed intake (FI), egg weight (EW) feed conversion ratio (FCR), egg quality, yolk color, serum profile, pH and viscosity of small intestinal content. A total of 400 ten-wk-old female quails were used and allocated to 8 diet treatments with 10 replicates of 5 quails. The diet treatments contained 0, 3, 6, and 9% BL with or without 1,000 mg multienzyme complex/kg feed. The experiment lasted 56 d in 4 periods of 14 d each. Egg production data were recorded daily, and egg quality traits were measured in each period. At the end of the experiment, one quail from each replicate was randomly selected and slaughtered by cervical dislocation, and blood samples were collected from the jugular vein for serum profile determination. All small intestinal content was taken, and pH, and viscosity values were determined. The results showed that BL content of the diet affected the laying performance of quails and FI was significantly increased by the BL content in the diet (P ≤ 0.05). On the other hand, BL content increased EP quadratically and EW linearly. (P ≤ 0.05) The addition of multienzyme complex and the interaction of BL with multienzymes did not affect the laying performance data. BL addition and BL multienzyme interaction affected eggshell breaking strength (P ≤ 0.05). The color values of egg yolk significantly modified with the presence of BL in the diet, and L* value cubically, the a* value quadratically and, the b* value linearly affected by the BL in the diet (P ≤ 0.05). Small intestine pH and viscosity values were not affected by treatments. Serum AST, ALT enzymes and triglyceride concentrations were not affected by the inclusion of BL in the diet. However, the BL content in the diet had a significant cubic effect on serum total cholesterol concentrations (P ≤ 0.05). As a result, 3% level of BL without enzyme addition can be used in laying quail diets in terms of egg production, egg weight, egg quality parameters, and serum total cholesterol.