Egg Production and Quality of Japanese Quails (Coturnix japonica) Fed Diets with various Levels of Pawpaw Pomace Meal (Carica papaya L.)

Özet

The high cost of soybeans in developing countries is driving up feed expenses in poultry diets. This study sought to address this by replacing soybean meal with pawpaw pomace meal (PPM) in Japanese quail diets. 140 female quails were split into 4 groups in a completely randomized design and were reared for 56 days on varying levels of PPM in their diets consisting 0% 2.5%, 5% and 7.5%. The quails were supplied respective feeds, and ordinary water ad libitum. The performance results showed hen-day-egg production (HDEP), feed intake (FI), egg weight (EW) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were significantly (p<0.05) affected by treatment.  PPM2.5 and PPM5 had the highest HDEP and the best FCR, while PPM 7.5 had the lowest HDEP and poor FCR. PPM7.5 had higher FI, while the control diet, PPM2.5 and PPM5 had lower FI. PPM5 had the highest EW, followed by PPM7.5, while the control diet and PPM had the lowest EW. In regard the egg quality performance, yolk colour, yolk weight, albumen weight and Haugh unit were significantly (p<0.05) affected by treatment. All the diets containing PPM had dark-yellowed yolk than the control diet. PPM2.5 and PPM5 had higher yolk and albumen weights, while PPM7.5 had lower. In a different trend, the control diet, PPM2.5 and PPM5 had higher Haugh unit, while PPM7.5 had lower Haugh unit. The optimal choice for egg production and quality was concluded to be the 5% inclusion level of PPM in the quail diets.