Jumbo quail responses to diets containing raw or heat-treated Marama bean (Tylosema esculentum) meal

Abstract

Growth performance, apparent retention (AR) of amino acids (AA), blood, and meat quality parameters were determined in grower Jumbo quail-fed diets containing raw or heat-treated marama bean (Tylosema esculentum) meal (MBM). The experimental diets were formulated to contain 99.98 g/kg of raw (MBMR), cooked (MBMC), autoclaved (MBMA), and toasted MBM (MBMT) in a standard grower diet (CON). A total of 306, 7-d-old Jumbo quail chicks (30.97 ± 1.79 g live weight) were placed in 35 cages (8/9 birds per cage). The five diets were allocated to the cages to give seven replicates per diet. The diets had varied responses (P < 0.05) on AR of lysine, methionine, and threonine, among others. The CON diet promoted the highest (P < 0.05) overall feed intake (FI) followed by MBMC and MBMA, and the lowest overall FI was from MBMR and MBMT. Quail-fed MBMR and MBMT diets had the least (P < 0.05) overall body weight gain and final body weights than those fed with the CON, MBMC, and MBMA diets. Moreover, quail on MBMR diet had the lowest (P < 0.05) overall gain-to-feed ratio (G:F) than those reared on the other diets, whose G:F values were statistically similar (P > 0.05). Similarly, quail on MBMR diet had the highest (P < 0.05) concentration of serum lipase and the heaviest gizzard than quail fed the other diets. However, quail-fed MBMT diet had heavier (P < 0.05) relative proventriculus weight compared to quail-fed other diets. Heavier (P < 0.05) relative spleen weights were observed for the MBMT and MBMR groups compared to the other groups. The CON diet had higher (P < 0.05) hematocrits and 1-h breast meat redness compared to the other diets. However, CON, MBMC, and MBMA diets increased (P < 0.05) 24-h breast meat redness than MBMR and MBMT diets. In conclusion, feeding diets with cooked or autoclaved marama bean meal resulted in an improvement in AA utilization, growth performance, and indices of carcass quality. However, raw and toasted marama beans had negative effects on performance parameters suggesting that optimal thermal treatment is critical for marama bean utilization.