NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY AND ECONOMIC BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF JAPANESE QUAILS (Coturnix coturnix japonica) FED DIETS CONTAINING GRADED LEVELS OF GINGER (Zingiber officinale) WASTE MEAL

Résumé

A total of two hundred and eighty eight (288) two-weeks-old Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) were used to evaluate their nutrient digestibility and economic benefit analysis when fed diets containing graded levels of ginger (Zingiber officinale) waste meal (GWM) as a replacement for maize. The birds were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments subdivided into four replicates containing 18 quail birds per replicate; and were fed formulated diets containing ginger waste meal at 0 (control), 10, 20 and 30 % respectively (designated as T1, T2, T3 and T4) for four weeks in a completely randomized design model. All data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results obtained revealed that there were no significant (p>0.05) differences observed in ether extract, total digestible nutrient, total feed intake and body weight gain (g). However, there were significant (p<0.05) differences in crude protein, crude fibre, ash, nitrogen free extract, dry matter digestibilities. Cost of feed, cost of total feed intake and cost/weight gain in ₦/kg were significantly different (p<0.05) between treatments. It was observed that all treatments had digestibility values above 50 % which implies that they all had high apparent nutrient digestibility and birds fed diets containing 30 % replacement of maize with GWM incurred the least in cost per weight gain in ₦ /kg. It was therefore concluded that the replacing maize by up to 30 % with GWM in Japanese quail diets is more economically beneficial without any adverse effects on nutrient digestibility and it had a positive effect on the economic benefit analysis of growing Japanese quails