Digestible lysine requirement for European laying quail

Abstract

The experiment was carried out to evaluate the productive performance of European quails (Coturnix coturnix) in the production phase, fed with diets containing different levels of digestible lysine. A total of 175 female quails, aged 65 days, were randomly distributed in a completely randomized design with five treatments and five replicates per treatment. The animals were housed in 25 metal cages, and each cage represented an experimental parcel, with seven birds per parcel. The birds were fed the experimental rations containing 1.177, 1.217, 1.317, 1.417, and 1.517% digestible lysine. The parameters evaluated were: laying rate, mass of eggs produced, feed intake in the period, lysine intake, feed conversion per dozen and per mass. Significant differences were observed for posture rate with quadratic behavior, which indicated higher production for the level of 1.23% of digestible lysine. There was an increasing linear behavior for the feed and lysine intake, and for conversion feed per dozen and by mass, we observed quadratic behaviors. This indicates better feed conversion index when the optimal inclusion level was 1.33% and 1.404% of digestible lysine in the diet, respectively. The requirement of digestible lysine in diets for European quails is 1.404%, which corresponds to a daily intake of 421.20 milligrams of digestible lysine.

Performance of european laying quail fed with diets containing maize germ meal

“…Birds fed with maize germ meal had heavier eggs, a result which agrees with Severo et al (2020), who found that the weight of the European quail egg reached a maximum of 23.92 g when fed with 43% maize meal and 1.417% digestible lysine. Sultana et al (2007) found Japanese quail produced egg weighing 9.74g when fed with a 60% maize diet, while Research, Society and Development, v. 9, n. 11, e76691110370, 2020(CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v9i11.10370 Parizadian et al (2011 reported mean egg weights of 11.91g for Japanese quail fed a diet of 50% maize.…”

“…Feed conversion was better for birds fed with maize germ meal, this probably occurred as a function of the significant increase in the content of essential unsaturated fatty acids present in the maize germ meal. Severo et al (2020) reported that European quails fed with 43% maize meal and 1.417% digestible lysine showed a feed conversion ratio of 2.98, a value much higher than that found in this research (< 2.41 to all diets). For laying hens, Brunelli et al (2010) noted that the inclusion of up to 21.2% of maize germ meal greatly improved feed conversion.…”

“…Laying percentage was higher for birds fed with maize germ meal, this may have occurred, as the birds also produced more eggs. However, Severo et al (2020) found that, when fed with up to 43% maize meal and 1.233% digestible lysine. European quail have a maximum of 77.79% in their laying.…”

“…Use Nutrition studies proposing the replacement of maize and soybean meal by unconventional foods, such as broken rice (Ashour et al, 2015), and sorghum (Freitas et al, 2014;Silva et al 2018) have been gaining prominence, because it reduces the cost of formulating feed for Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) (Edache et al, 2005;Niamat, 2017;Lucena et al, 2019) and European quail (Coturnix coturnix) (Silva et al, 2019;Severo et al, 2020).…”

Performance and egg production of European quails fed with increasing levels of apparent metabolizable energy

“…The amount of energy in the diet influences feed consumption, and can interfere with egg production and egg constituents, and consumption is also influenced by factors such as body weight, ambient temperature, photoperiod, among others (Severo et al, 2020;Santana et al, 2021). When there is an increase in the energy level of the feed, voluntary consumption decreases, reducing egg production (Silva et al, 2003).…”