The experimental work was designed to study the effects of
supplemental methionine (Met) and lysine (Lys) on performance of
growing japanese quail. Two hundred and seventy, 1day - old
unsexed birds were allotted to 5 treatments and were fed the
experimental diets. The composition of the experimental diets were as
follows:
1. D1, corn-soybean meal diet with an animal protein source
containing methionine and lysine levels as recommended by
NRC, 1994.
2. D2, corn-soybean meal diet without any source of animal protein
or supplemental methionine and lysine. The diet has a deficiency
of methionine and lysine and considered as the negative control.
3. D3 is the same composition of D2 and supplemented with
methionine and lysine as recommended by NRC, and considered
as the control.
4. D4 is the same composition of D3 with supplemental methionine
and lysine to the level of 120% of NRC, recommendations.
5. D5 is the same composition of D3 with supplemental methionine
and lysine to the level of 140% of NRC, recommendations.
The results obtained indicated that there were insignificant
effects of increasing dietary Met and Lys levels on Japanese quail
growth performance. The diet containing no more than 1.12% Lys
and 0.42% Met (D2) was enough for satisfactory live body weight
(LBW), growth rate (GR), performance index (PI) and feed intake
(FI). With respect of the whole period, there were insignificant effects
of increasing dietary Met and Lys levels on Japanese quail feed
conversion (FC), crude protein conversion (CPC), and caloric
conversion ratio (CCR), also the dietary 1.12% Lys and 0.42% Met
levels were sufficient to obtain the optimum values of FC, CPC and
CER for Japanese quail. From the economical point of view, it can be
recommended that the diet containing no more than 1.12% Lys and
0.42% Met levels were the best diet for feeding the growing Japanese
quail.