Effect of dietary supplementation of zinc and/or manganese on growth and reproductive performance of Japanese quail

ABSTRACT

This work was conducted to study the effect of dietary supplementation of zinc and /or manganese on growth and reproductive performance of Japanese quail. A total of 270 one-day old Japanese quail were used and allotted into 9 equal groups. Zinc and manganese were supplemented to the basal diet at different levels 0 + 0, 0 + 90, 0 + 180, 25 + 0, 25 + 90, 25 + 180, 50 + 0, 50 + 90, 50 + 180 ppm in the starting and growing periods and at levels 0 +0, 0 + 70, 0 + 140, 50 + 0, 50 + 70, 50 + 140, 100 + 0, 100 + 70, 100 + 140 ppm in the laying period. Addition of zinc and /or manganese improved the final body weight [at 6 weeks], total body gain, daily gain, body weight gain% relative to the control group and feed conversion ratio. The dressing%, organ weight and blood picture showed some variations in different quail groups. During the laying period, average egg production, egg mass and feed conversion ratio showed an improvement in treated groups when compared to the control one. Hatchability% of fertile eggs showed some variations in different quail groups. Eggs, yolk and albumen weights, shell thickness, shell weight and ash percentage of quail eggs in different treated groups showed a slight improvement when compared to the control one. It can be concluded that, addition of zinc and /or manganese to the ordinary diets of quail improves their growth performance and also slightly improves reproductive performance