An on-farm experiment was conducted using 240 one-day old
Japanese quail chicks which, individually wing-banded, weighed and
randomly distributed into four experimental groups of similar mean
body weight of three replicates each and aimed to study the possibility of
improving the ME of SBM-based diets fed to Japanese quail (Coturnix
coturnix japonica) by dietary addition of a commercial enzyme
preparation “Avizym1500" at a level of 0.1% (1 kg/ton) diet and its effect
on growth performance, some carcass traits, intestinal viscosity and
incidence of pasting vents, volatile fatty acid concentration in cecum,
and laying performance. Two experimental starter-grower corn-soybean
meal diets (C-SBM) were formulated to be iso-nitrogenous (24% CP)
and containing two ME levels (2900 and 2750 kcal ME/kg diet). Also,
two experimental C-SBM layer basal diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous (20% CP) and containing two ME levels (2900 and 2750
kcal ME/kg diet). Four dietary treatments in both starting-growing and
laying periods were compared; two treatments consisted of the two basal
diets without “Avizym1500" supplementation and two treatments
consisted of the two basal diets supplemented with “Avizym1500" at a
level of 0.1% (1 kg/ton). Live growth performance, carcass
characteristics, intestinal viscosity and incidence of pasting vents,
volatile fatty acid concentration in cecum and laying performance were
determined. Generally, supplementing Avizym1500 to RE-diet gave equal
performance to the corresponding Avizym1500 –free diet (Control). But,
supplementing Avizym1500 to LE-diet significantly improved
performance index (PI) and growth rat (GR), egg production (EP%),
egg number (EN), egg weight (EW), egg mass (EM), feed conversion
ratio (FCR), carcass parameters %, liver, heart and edible giblets %.
However, it significantly decreased mortality rate (MR%), abdominal fat
%, the viscosity in different parts of intestine, pasting vents % and Feed
intake (FI). Nutritionally, it could be concluded that supplementing
“Avizym1500" in both starter-grower and layer diets at a level of 0.1% (1
kg/ton) helped in improving quail performance, carcass traits and egg
production traits.