LAYING AND EGG QUALITY OF QUAIL FED DIETS CONTAINING KUHOL MEAL (Pomacea canaliculata) FORTIFIED WITH DIFFERENT PHYTOBIOTICS

Abstract

Phytobiotics are plant-derived products that are added to the diet of the animals. Kuhol (Pomacea canaliculata) or golden apple snail was introduced critically as food but became destructive mollusk which invaded rice fields and eventually became pest. This study was conducted to determine the quality of quail fed diets laying and eggs that contain kuhol meal fortified with various phytobiotics. Proximate analysis was performed on phytobiotics leaf and kuhol meal. Completely randomized design (CRD) was followed to analyse the gathered date on 225 twenty two days old Japanese Seattle quails distributed to five treatments. Results shows that significant differences were observed on laying efficiency, egg production, feed conversion ratio and cost of production per egg. Insignificant differences among treatment means were recorded on average egg weight, average egg diameter, average egg shell-thickness and shelled to shell-less egg ratio. In addition, an inclusion of 1.5% phytobiotics and kuhol meal in the diet, gave experimental animal different performance but did not affect to improve egg quality. Trials on some plants having comparable properties are also conducted in this study.