EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EGG QUALITY OF JAPANESE QUAILS (Coturnix coturnix japonica) FED DIETS CONTAINING RAW AND BOILED RUBBER (Hevea brasiliensis) SEED MEAL

Abstract

One hundred and eighty, 6 weeks old Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) hens were used to evaluate the effect of diets containing rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) seed meal boiled at varying durations on egg quality characteristics of laying birds. The birds were divided into six dietary treatments of 30 birds, each replicated thrice with 10 birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design. The birds were raised in cages measuring 75cm×75cm×60cm and were fed the six dietary treatments formulated to be isonitrogenous and isocaloric (20 % CP, 2700 ME kcal/kg DM). Rubber seed meal was included in the diets at 0 and 20% of raw and those boiled for 30, 40, 50 and 60 minutes representing treatments one to six respectively. The experiment lasted for twenty-one weeks. Feed and water were provided ad libitum. The results showed that diets containing raw seed meal (RSM) and RSMboiled at varying durations had significant (P<0.05) effects on egg weight, egg length, egg width, shell percentage, albumen length, albumen height, albumen weight, yolk height, yolk width and yolk percentage across the dietary treatments. It is concluded that diets containing raw RSM and RSM boiled at varying durations had significant (P<0.05) effect on the egg quality characteristics of laying quails