Performance and egg production of Japanese quails fed diets containing varying levels of sun-dried cassava peel meal fortified with palm oil

Abstract

A total of360, six (6) weeks old female quails with an average weight of 71.67 g of female were used to determine the effect of varying levels of sun-dried cassava peel meal on Japanese quails. The birds were randomly allotted to four dietary groups with 90 birds per treatment, each treatment was replicated thrice. The diets contained 0, 25, 50 and 75 % of sun-dried cassava peel meal (SCPM) fortified with palm oil at 0 %, 12 %, 12 %, and 12 % respectively, and were designatedSCPM0,SCPM2s, SCPMso and 1CPM7S, respectively, as a replacement for dietary maize. The parameters measured were body weight, feed intake, daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio nutrient digestibility, hen-day egg production, hen¬house egg production The result showed that there were no significant (P>0.05) difference in the body weight and daily weight gain. Significant (P<0.05) difference was observed, in feed intake and feed conversion ratio. There were significant (P<0,05) difference in nutrient digestibility among dietary groups. Japanese quails fed SCPM7S had better CF, EE and ash digestibility while quads fed SCPM70 had better CP and NFE digestibility. The results also showed significant (P<0.05) difference in hen-day egg production and hen-house egg production with quails fed SCPMso having better values. It was concluded that dietary maize could be replaced with sun-cried cassava peel meal (SCPM) fortified with palm oil up to 75 % without any deleterious effect on growth performance and egg production of laying Japanese quails