Abstract:
Japanese quail production has been extensively practiced in worldwide as its meat
is lean and low in cholesterol. Many efforts are made to use different leaf meals in
their diet to enhance the performance. The present study was conducted with the
aim of assessing the effect of feeding Alternanthera sessilis leaf meal (ASLM) on
growth performance of Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica). A total of 96
unsexed, fourteen days old Japanese quail chicks were randomly assigned to four
equal treatments of 24 birds and further subdivided into four replicates according
to a completely randomized design. The first (control) treatment (T1) was a diet
without ASLM while ASLM was added in diets at levels of 1%, 3% and 5% in the
second (T2), third (T3) and fourth (T4) treatments, respectively. Ad-libitum feeding
was practiced till the end of sixth week. Body weight and feed consumption were
recorded at weekly intervals, while body weight gain and feed conversion ratio
(FCR) were calculated. On forty second day, quails were slaughtered, and the
dressing percentage was calculated. The results indicated that the supplementation
of ASLM in Japanese quail diets significantly (p<0.05) affected the feed intake, body
weight, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio. T4 had the lowest feed intake
than other treatments on the 22-28, 29-35 and 36-42 days, whereas on 35th and 42nd
day it had the highest (p<0.05) body weight of 167.49±17.97 g and 181.85±16.08 g,
respectively. On 29th to 35th day the body weight gain of T4 was significantly higher
(p<0.05) than other treatments. Feed conversion ratio was decreased with
increasing level of ASLM where T4 had the lowest (p<0.05) FCR on 21-28 and 29-
35 days. However, ASLM supplementation had no significant (p>0.05) influence on
the dressing percentage and it was between 70-73%. This study revealed that
supplementing diet with 5% ASLM enhanced the growth performance of Japanese
quails.
