O caulim adsorve toxinas e patógenos no trato gastrointestinal permitindo maior digestão e absorção de nutrientes, podendo propiciar melhor qualidade óssea de poedeiras na fase final de produção, mas adsorção de minerais, redução da digestibilidade da ração, também podem ser observados, dependendo do nível de inclusão da argila. Portanto o objetivo deste estudo é verificar a inclusão de caulim na ração de galinhas poedeiras semipesadas no final do ciclo produtivo e sua influência sobre a digestibilidade aparente da matéria seca, retenção e excreção mineral e qualidade óssea. Foram alojadas 144 galinhas em delineamento inteiramente casualizado, em seis tratamentos: controle (sem a inclusão do aditivo); e inclusão de 1, 2, 3, 4 e 5% de caulim na dieta. Às 85 semanas de idade das aves foram mensuradas a digestibilidade aparente da matéria seca da ração (Digap), a excreção e retenção de matéria mineral, e a excreção de cálcio e fósforo, para qualidade óssea foram mensurados o índice Seedor e a matéria mineral e resistência a quebra da tíbia. Após análise de variância, os dados foram submetidos à analise de regressão ao nível de significância de 5%. A Digap e a excreção de matéria mineral pioraram (P<0,05) com a elevação da concentração de caulim na ração, já a retenção de matéria mineral se comportou de maneira quadrática, não houve diferença significativa (P>0,05) na excreção de cálcio e fósforo. O índice de seedor aumentou de maneira linear (P<0,05), não havendo diferença significativa para os demais parâmetros ósseos (P>0,05). A inclusão de caulim favoreceu a retenção de minerais e a qualidade óssea em galinhas poedeiras no final do ciclo produtivo, não promovendo alteração na retenção do cálcio e do fósforo e reduziu a digestibilidade da ração.

The objective of this work was to determine the effect of inclusion levels of dietary fiber in the Japanese quail diets. Japanese quail were distributed in a completely randomized design, with 5 treatments and 12 replicates composed of 8 birds each. The treatments were constituted by five increasing levels of fiber in the diet: 2.78; 3.08; 3.38; 3.68; 3.98%. The parameters of productive performance, water consumption, egg quality, total lipids in the egg, excreta humidity, weight of digestive organs and intestinal morphology were evaluated. There was no significant effect of the use of different fiber levels on feed intake, egg production, viability, live weight, relative and absolute weight of gizzard, small intestine and cecum, and in excreta moisture of Japanese quais. Higher dietary fiber levels resulted in improvements in feed conversion per mass and per dozen eggs and higher water consumption. There was no significant difference for egg quality, except fot the color of the yolk where it was observed higher pigmentation of this structure with higher levels of fiber inclusion, and the lipid concentration in the buds was influenced in a quadratic manner. The inclusion of fiber promoted improvement in the villi of the duodenum and cecum.

Sixty fresh hen eggs and 60 quail eggs were used in an experiment conducted at UFRRJ in order to survey the correlation between the eggshell quality measurements by average of the following parameters: specific gravity, breaking strength, percentage and thickness of the shell. For hen eggs, specific gravity demonstrated a higher correlation (p <0.05) with shell thickness as compared to other methodologies; the breaking strength correlated with the shell percentage and shell thickness. In quail eggs, there was no correlation (p> 0.05) between specific gravity with the other shell quality analyses. There was a correspondence between breaking strength with the percentage and the thickness of the shell, this ratio was higher for the percentage of shell. For hen eggs, the measurement of the specific gravity method used in commercial poultry farms was adequate to indicate good shell quality in accordance with great correlation with shell thickness. However, the evaluation of shell quality through the specific gravity for quail eggs needs adaptation in the methodology for egg morphology for this species. The parameters of shell quality surveyed: specific gravity, breaking resistance, percentage of shell and thickness of shell in hen eggs showed a positive correlation to a moderate degree (0.54). For quail eggs, the shell percentage shows moderate match (0.60) only with breaking strength and shell thickness.

The objective of this study was to describe emus’ breeding performance in Brazil at different ages, grouped in couples or colonies. The duration of the breeding season and the production of eggs per female housed were recorded, and the productivity and breeding variables were associated with the variation of the photoperiod. The total production of the flock was 180 eggs, and the breeding season lasted 167 days (April-September), a period with an average of 11 h and 11min of daylight. The breeding season lasted 113, 133 and 82 days, the numbers of eggs produced per female were 7.29, 25.67 and 17.3, and productivity values were 31.6, 38.6, and 45.4% in the groups of birds with ages of two, four and seven years, respectively. The breeding season in 2016 occurred between April and August in Brazil. Older birds tended to start breeding later. The production rate observations indicated that earlier peak production was associated with lower egg production potential. Finally, there was a tendency for better breeding performance of birds housed in couples than in groups with more birds.

This study investigated the inclusion of kaolin levels in the diet of brown egg layers at the end of the production cycle. A completely randomized design involved the distribution of 288 brown egg layers into six treatments of eight replications, with six birds per replication. When the birds reached the age of 63 weeks, the feeding of the experimental diets began. Diets differed by the inclusion of increasing levels of kaolin: Control (no additive), and the inclusion of 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, and 5% kaolin. The performance, egg quality, intestinal morphometry, and excreta moisture were evaluated. The inclusion of kaolin promoted improvement in the jejunum villus height, enabling less feed intake; however, there were no significant differences in egg quality. The excreta moisture decreased linearly as the kaolin level in the diet increased. The inclusion of 5% kaolin in the diet of brown egg layers at the end of the production cycle improved intestinal morphometry and the quality of excreta through a reduction of moisture.

RESUMO O experimento foi realizado no setor de avicultura/UFRRJ, utilizando 348 galinhas semipesadas (linhagem Dekalb Brown), com 52 semanas de idade, criadas sob dois sistemas de produção: cage-free e em gaiolas. Os dados obtidos pela análise físico-química e microbiológica dos ovos e a resistência óssea à quebra foram submetidos à análise de variância. No caso de ocorrerem efeitos dos diferentes sistemas de produção, foi aplicado o teste de Tukey a 5% de probabilidade para comparação das médias. A qualidade físico-química foi igualmente favorecida pelos dois sistemas de produção, indicando que as circunstâncias experimentais propiciaram condições adequadas para a formação de ovos de boa qualidade. O sistema de gaiola não desfavoreceu as características ósseas das galinhas, apontando que, em densidades adequadas, a gaiola pode não exercer um fator prejudicial para a qualidade óssea. O sistema de produção cage-free piorou a contaminação da casca, comprovando que ovos postos em ninhos são mais contaminados em comparação aos produzidos em gaiolas.

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