Effect of fermented coconut meal supplementation on growth of meat quail (Coturnix japonica)
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with fermented coconut meal (FCM) on feed conversion ratio (FCR), growth performance, and carcass traits of Japanese quail. A completely randomized design was employed using 360 Japanese quails at 21 days of age (initial body weight: 60.2 ± 3.61 g). The experiment consisted of four treatments with nine replicates per treatment, and each replicate contained 10 birds (5 males and 5 females). The treatments included a control without FCM supplementation (ĐC), NT1 (0.25% FCM), NT2 (0.5% FCM), and NT3 (0.75% FCM). After 28 days of the experiment, the results showed that FCM supplementation significantly improved growth performance and FCR compared with the control group (P < 0.05), whereas the average feed intake during the entire experimental period was not significantly different among treatments (P > 0.05), ranging from 12.12 to 12.23 g/bird/day. Carcass evaluation indicated that supplementation with 0.25% FCM resulted in the highest carcass weight (127 ± 1.34 g), thigh meat weight (34.60 ± 0.36 g), and breast meat weight (70.63 ± 0.52 g) compared with the control group (P < 0.05). In addition, female quails had significantly greater live weight, carcass weight, and breast meat weight than male quails (P < 0.05). Increasing the FCM supplementation level to 0.5% and 0.75% did not provide further improvements in carcass performance compared with the 0.25% level. The results suggest that supplementation with 0.25% FCM in the diet is an appropriate level for improving growth performance and carcass yield of Japanese quail during the 21- to 49-day growing period.
