Abstract:
An experiment was conducted in Japanese quail layers from six to 26 weeks of age by replacing unsalted dried fish with cuttle fish waste silage on crude protein basis. The objective was to assess the production performance as well as the economics of feed cost over production. Two hundred and forty Japanese quail pullets of six weeks age were divided randomly into twelve groups of 20 birds each. They were randomly allotted into three treatment groups, T1, T2 and T3 and maintained on isonitrogenous and isocaloric diet. The unsalted dried fish content in the control ration (T1) was replaced by cuttle fish waste silage at 50 and 100 per cent levels in T2 and T3, respectively. The initial and final body weight were recorded. Data collection was done for five periods of twenty eight days each from seven to twenty six weeks. At the end of the trial pooled yolk samples and two liver samples from each replicate were analysed for fatty acid profile.
The initial and final body weight and the body weight gain during experimental period for different dietary treatments did not differ significantly. The birds belonged to group T2 attained sexual maturity first followed by the control group T1. There was a slight delay for group T3 in attaining sexual maturity (P<0.01). The age at 10 and 50 per cent production did not differ significantly between treatments. The period wise mean daily feed consumption was lower in T3 than T1 and T2 (P<0.01). The mean feed intake was highest in T1 followed by T2 and T3 and the treatments differed significantly (P<0.05). The cumulative feed conversion efficiency was superior inT1 and T2 (P<0.01) than T3. The cumulative hen housed and hen day egg number of T1 and T2 were significantly higher (p<0.01) than T3. Though the per cent hen housed and hen day egg production of birds in treatments T1 and T2 were significantly higher in all the periods, the overall mean values did not show any significant difference. The egg quality traits recorded viz., shape index, albumen index, yolk index, internal quality unit and shell thickness did not differ significantly between treatments in any of the periods (P>0.05). The oleic acid content of quail liver was significantly higher in T3 than T1 but no significant difference was noticed among the egg yolk fatty acids. The cost of feed per egg was lowest in T2 followed by T1 and T3.Overall evaluation of the study reveals that the cuttle fish waste silage could be used economically to replace 50 per cent of crude protein from unsalted dried fish on protein basis in Japanese quail layer rations, without any adverse effect on growth, production and egg quality and feed cost.
