Vol. 8, Issue 4 (2019)

Author(s):
A Varadharajan, R Gnanasekar and S Kothandaraman

Abstract:
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary incorporation of different levels of Azolla meal (AZM) on the production performance of Japanese quails. One week old 150 quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) were randomly divided into 3 groups viz. T₁, T₂ and T₃ with 5 replicates of 10 birds each. T₁ served as control (0 % AZM) and T₂ and T₃ groups were fed with a diet containing 3% and 6% AZM, respectively for a period of 6 weeks. Feed consumption was calculated during the entire trial period. At the end of the trial period, randomly 5 birds from 5 replicates of T₁, T₂ and T₃ were slaughtered to study the carcass characteristics. There was significant difference in 3 groups’ carcass characteristics with respect to giblet, back and wings percentage though other parameters were insignificant. It was concluded that AZM could be incorporated in quails’ diet up to 6% without affecting the feed consumption and carcass traits. More importantly, it doesn’t exhibit any untoward incidence and was considered safe and economical.