Effect of Dietary Sunflower Oil Incorporation on Laying Performances and Egg Quality of Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica)

Abstract

The addition of oils in animal nutrition improves growth performances and the quality of products obtained as meat, milk and eggs by providing essential fatty acids. In poultry and especially in layers, vegetables oils are used widely to increase energy in food. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary sunflower oil incorporation on laying performances and egg quality of Japanese quail. A basal diet SF0 was formulated to meet the nutritional requirements for laying quails. Two other foods SF5 and SF10 were obtained by the incorporation of 5 and 10% of sunflower oil in the control food SF0. We used a total of 300 females of quail, aged 42 days old. Quails were housed in cages. They were randomly assigned to the three experimental diets (100 Quails per diet). In total, 30 cages (10 cages/ treatment) were used and each cage contained 10 quails. The results showed that the addition of sunflower oil to the feed of quails during the laying period improved the growth performances of quails by increasing the live weight, reducing the feed conversion index, and therefore ensuring early maturity of females. For egg quality, dietary supplementation with 10% sunflower oil affects positively the weight of eggs, yolk, and albumen without any effect on the rate of these later. On the other hand, the laying rate was not affected by the type of diet. However, the addition of sunflower oil can improve the shape index, haugh unit, and the yolk color score. Dietary sunflower oil supplementation at 10% improves the laying performances of quails without any negative effect on the health status of animals. Supplementing the quails' diet with sunflower oil improves egg quality as haugh unit and yolk color score.