Reproductive characteristics of male and female Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) fed diets with different levels of crude protein during the growth and production phases

•Dietary crude protein differently influences the growth curve of males and females.•The intensity of laying and egg mass increase with higher dietary CP levels.•Male reproductive characteristics are not affected by dietary crude protein. The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth and re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Livestock science 2019-05, Vol.223, p.124-132
Main Authors: Retes, Pâmela Lacombe, das Neves, Danusa Gebin, Bernardes, Laryssa Fernanda, Lima, Diego de Rezende, Ribeiro, Catarina Brenha, Gonçalves, Natália de Castro, Alvarenga, Renata Ribeiro, Fassani, Edison José, Zangeronimo, Márcio Gilberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Egg production
Fertility
Growth performance
Quail production
Reproduction
Semen quality
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Summary:•Dietary crude protein differently influences the growth curve of males and females.•The intensity of laying and egg mass increase with higher dietary CP levels.•Male reproductive characteristics are not affected by dietary crude protein. The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth and reproductive performance of male and female Japanese quails fed diets with different levels of crude protein (CP) during the growth (1 to 35 days of age) and production (36 to 96 days) phases. Three hundred one-day-old males, housed in 30 cages (10 birds/cage), and 360 one-day-old females, housed in 10 cages (36 birds/cage), were used in the present study; they were housed as described above until the birds were 35 days of age (growth phase). The treatments tested during this phase included five different levels of dietary CP (18, 20, 22, 24 and 26%), which were reduced by four percentage units for the production phase. During the production phase, the birds were randomly redistributed into 40 laying cages, each with 9 females and 3 males. During all experimental periods, every 3 days, 12 birds of each sex from each CP level were individually weighed, until the birds reached 60 days of age, to estimate the growth parameters using the Gompertz curve. For the production variables, a completely randomized design with five treatments (dietary CP levels) and eight replicates (cages) was used. For the males, there was a linear increase (P
ISSN:1871-1413
1878-0490
DOI:10.1016/j.livsci.2019.03.011