Feed additive for quails based on fermented brewer’s spent grain

Abstract

The paper discusses the effect of a newly developed complex feed additive Grainbiosorb used in complete feed on livability, age of first egg laying, egg productivity, and feed consumption for the production of 1 dozen eggs of laying quails of the Texas white broiler breed. The scientific experiment was carried out in the experimental vivarium of Krasnodar Research Centre for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine according to the standard technique recommended by the Federal Scientific Center “All-Russian Research and Technological Institute of Poultry” of Russian Academy of Sciences, (Sergiev Posad, 2013). The developed complex feed additive Grainbiosorb consists of fermented brewer’s spent grain, a mineral sorbing complex and probiotic microorganisms. Brewer’s spent grain is pre-fermented with probiotic bacterial concentrate, consisting of lactic acid, and propionic acid microorganisms. The use of fermented brewer’s spent grain in combination with a mineral complex can solve the problems of metabolism, digestion, exposure to heavy metals and thereby increase productivity and contribute to obtaining safe poultry products. The livability of the quail population in experimental and control groups was the same and amounted to 90.0%. The quails of the first group laid the first egg at the age of 44 days, while the quails of the second group at the age of 42 days. Gross egg production for the period of the experiment per the initial laying quail and the egg production for the average laying quail increased in the experimental group relative to the control by 3.8%. The intensity of egg production in the experimental group increased by 2.3 abs. % relative to that in the control group. Feed consumption for the production of 1 dozen quail eggs decreased by 5.5% in the experimental group, relative to the control.