Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL AND VETERINARY ADVANCES, cilt.8, sa.6, ss.1079-1082, 2009 (SCI-Expanded)
This study was conducted to investigate effect of feed restriction (80 and 70% of ad libitum consumption) on growth performance of Japanese quail. To achieve this goal, I day old 363 Japanese quail were divided into 3 groups, randomly; The 1st, 2nd and 3rd groups were control, 20% feed restricted and 30% feed restricted, respectively. All chicks were weighed by 0,01 g sensitivity; leg banded by tape and reared on 5 cm deep wood shavings. They were provided ad libitum access to a commercial starter breeder diet containing 28% CP with 2800 kcal ME kg(-1) for 14 days and provided commercial finisher breeder diet containing 24% CP with 3000 kcal ME kg(-1) for 28 days. Feed restriction was started at the end of 14 days after hatching and lasted 2 weeks. During the trail control group had ad libitum access to the feed but 2nd and 3rd group had 80 and 70% of control group. Birds were weighed individually every week and supplied water for ad libitum consumption until end of the trail. Analysis of variance was carried out on the data using the General Linear Model procedure of base SAS software. T-test was used to compare differences among the treatments. At the end of 14 days after hatching, average body weights of group 1, 2 and 3 were 60.50 +/- 1.17, 62.12 +/- 1.18 and 61.93 +/- 1.20 g (p>0.05) for males and 62.80 +/- 1.10, 61.32 +/- 1.07 and 63.2 +/- 1.18 g (p>0.05) for females, respectively. Feed restriction had negative effect on quail growing at the end of 4th week after hatching, which was last week of feed restriction practice. At this week, average body weights for group 1, 2 and 3 were 134.36 +/- 2.18, 125.34 +/- 2.19 and 124.85 +/- 2.18 g (p<0.01) for males and 135.00 +/- 2.25, 124.17 +/- 2.29 and 130.76 +/- 2.49 g (p<0.01) for females, respectively. At the end of trial, average body weights of group 1, 2 and 3 were 164.18 +/- 2.89,166.74 +/- 2.91 and 162.17 +/- 2.97 g for males and 184.92 +/- 2.92, 182.47 +/- 2.85 and 186.39 +/- 3.12 g for females (p>0.05), respectively. As it was seen, body weights of feed restricted quail were significantly lower than control group during trail. Two weeks after feed restriction ended, however, body weights were no longer different. As a result, the effects of feed restriction during growing period for quail in this study were similar to those observed in chickens. These data indicate that by 30% feed restriction can be practiced for 2 weeks during growing period of quail.