Boletim de Indústria Animal (Dec 2016)
Effect of dietary ascorbic acid supplementation in japanese quail raised in a tropical environment on nutrient intake, productive performance and egg quality
Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of adding 0, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03% ascorbic acid to the diet of laying Japanese quail raised in the tropics on nutrient intake, productive performance and egg quality. Eighty Japanese quail were divided to receive four inclusion levels of ascorbic acid. A completely randomized design was used and the results were submitted to analysis of variance. The differences observed were analyzed by regression at a 5% level of significance. The addition of 0, 0.01, 0.02% and 0.03% ascorbic acid to the diet of quail did not influence dry matter intake (DMI), organic matter intake (OMI) or crude protein intake (CPI), expressed as g/animal/day, g/kg0.75 and % body weight. Mean DMI, OMI and CPI were 46.53, 44.0 and 11.0 g/animal/day, respectively. However, there was a quadratic effect on neutral detergent fiber intake (NDFI). Maximum NDFI was 9.19 g/animal/day for the inclusion level of 0.01% ascorbic acid in the diet of laying Japanese quail. The addition of ascorbic acid to the diet of laying quail did not alter (P>0.05) egg production or productivity, with a mean egg production of 3.06 eggs/cage/day and 0.77 eggs/animal/day and mean productivity of 76.5%. The addition of 0, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03% ascorbic acid also did not alter egg weight (g), yolk and albumen weight (g), or egg and yolk diameter (mm). However, the addition of ascorbic acid to the quail diet exerted a quadratic effect (P<0.05) on egg height (mm) and shell weight (g). The lowest egg height and shell weight were 2.99 mm and 1.25 g, respectively, for inclusion levels of 0.017% and 0.023% ascorbic acid in the quail diets. For shell thickness (mm) and yolk height (mm), the addition of ascorbic acid exerted a quadratic effect (P<0.05), with maximum values of 0.031 mm and 1.42 mm, respectively, for 0.024% and 0.017% ascorbic acid in the diets. The addition of up to 0.03% ascorbic acid to the diet of laying quail raised in the tropics does not alter nutrient intake, egg production or productivity. However, better shell thickness and yolk height are obtained with the addition of 0.02% ascorbic acid to the diet.
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