Abstract
The study was conducted to estimate requirements of energy and crude protein for maintenance, weight gain and egg production of Japanese quails in the period of 67 to 107 days of age. Two experiments were performed: one, to determine the requirements for maintenance of protein, and the other, for energy. Experiments were conducted in a completely randomized design with four dietary levels of offer and four replicates of six birds. The diets offered were: ad libitum (100%), 75%, 50%, and 25% consumption ad libitum (below maintenance). The methodology used to estimate the demand for maintenance was the comparative slaughter. For estimation of the requirement for weight gain, eight groups of 15 quails were reared separately, fed ad libitum and housed under 22 oC controlled temperature. From these poultry, three groups were slaughtered at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 days of the trial. The requirement for egg production was obtained by taking the ratio of energy content, egg protein, efficiency of energy use and protein for egg production. Prediction equations that estimate maintenance requirement, weight gain and egg production in energy and crude protein of Japanese quail include: metabolizable energy (kcal/bird/day) = 92.34*body weight0.75 + 6.23*weight gain + 4.19*egg mass; crude protein (g/bird/day) = 6.71*body weight0.75 + 0.615*weight gain + 0.258*egg mass.
Highlights
Energy and protein are the main nutrients considered in feed formulation
Laying Japanese quails were studied in the period from 67 to 107 days of age in order to develop prediction equations for energy and protein to estimate maintenance, weight gain and egg production
During the Japanese quails’ performance (Table 2), there was a decrease in features as the supply of basal diet was reduced, according to results observed in pullets (Albino et al, 1994), young quails (Silva et al, 2004a) and quails at growth (Silva et al, 2004b)
Summary
Energy and protein are the main nutrients considered in feed formulation. Energy regulates food intake and, since quails have relatively higher feed intake compared with chickens (Silva & Costa, 2009), supply of diets with inadequate energy level can change consumption and reduce these animals’ performance. There are a number of recommendations for energy determined by prediction models for pullets (Albino et al, 1994), layers (Sakomura et al, 2005), breeders at growth (Sakomura et al, 2003) and laying (Rabello et al, 2004) phases, broilers (Longo et al, 2006) and quails (Silva et al, 2004ab) during growth. Prediction equations can be important tools in determining the nutritional requirements of quails by fractioning the estimate on maintenance, gain, and especially requirement and efficiency of egg production. This allows performing more elaborate feeding programs in the nutrient profile and minimum feed cost. Study aimed to determine the requirements of energy and crude protein for maintenance, weight gain and egg production and develop models to predict Japanese quails’ requirements for full egg production
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