Effect of Sea-shell Based Calcium Carbonate Supplement (Cockle) on the Egg Quality of Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Abstract

The study was undertaken to investigate the effects of sea-shell (Anadara granosa) supplemented diet on the growth performance, viability, egg production performances and egg quality of layer quail. A total of 60 Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix Japonica) of similar age (50 days old) were distributed randomly into three dietary treatments including T1 (control), T2and T3 in a completely randomized design (CRD). Each treatment was replicated four times with 5 birds per replicate. Quails were reared in the battery cages of equal size from d50-71 days (3 weeks). Iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous formulated diet (mash) was fed the layer quails throughout the trial period. Birds had a free access to test diet mixed with sea-shell powder at the rate of T1 (0%), T2 (1.76%), and T3 (1.88%), and water supplied to the birds ad-libitum. Bird was reared under uniform feeding, rearing, lighting and standard management condition throughout the trial period. Data on feed intake (FI), body weight (BW), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and livability (%) were recorded on day71. Besides, egg weight, hen housed egg production (HHEP) %, egg production (EP) number, shell weight, Haugh unit (HU) score, shell weight %, shape index, albumen weight, albumen weight %, albumen index, yolk weight, yolk%, and yolk index were also measured to evaluate the egg quality performance of layer quail during 50 to 71 days of rearing period. The data revealed that dietary treatments did not affect FI, BW, FCR, and viability % of quail (P>0.05). The egg weight was unaffected (P>0.05) between the dietary treatment, but, EP and HHEP % were differed significantly (P<0.05) between treatment from 57 to 71 days. The highest EP ( 32.25 no/w/b) number and HHEP (92.15%) were observed in the birds fed supplemented diet (T2) while lowest EP (25.25 no./w/b) and HHEP (72.14%) being in the unsupplemented or control group (T1) from d65 to 71 days. It is clear from the results that, the most of the egg quality parameters measured in this study was not affected (P<0.05) by the dietary treatments except for shell weight % and shape index. Only the shell weight % and shape index were found to be improved (P<0.05) in the birds fed supplemented dietary group (T2, T3) compared to control or basal diet (T1) during 2nd (57 to 64 days) and 3rd (65 to 71 days) weeks of ages, respectively. It can be concluded that supplementation of sea-shells (cockle) in layer diet was found to be a more potential natural source of calcium which could enhance the egg production performances (HHEP), egg number and egg quality of quail under commercial farming condition.