Growth performance, haematological characteristic and serum biochemistry of Japanese quails fed with diets containing African pear seed meal

Abstract

The growth, haematological characteristics and serum biochemistry of one hundred and thirty-five Japanese quails fed diets    containing African Pear Seed Meal (APSM) was investigated in a completely randomised design experiment with five treatments and each treatment was replicated three times. APSM was fed at 0%, 15%, 30%, 45% and 60% levels of inclusion as partial and  total replacement for maize. Data collected included average feed intake (AFI), average weight gain (AWG), specific growth rate (SGR), operating protein efficiency ratio (PER), feed conversion ratio (FCR), haemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), white blood cell (WBC), red blood cell (RBC), Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean   corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) serum total protein (PRO), Albumin (ALB), glucose (GLU), creatinine (CREAT), cholesterol (CHOL) and Alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Results revealed that the increasing level of inclusion of APSM significantly (P<0.05) depressed the weight gain, specific growth rate, protein efficiency ratio, and feed conversion ratio of the birds. The   increasing level of APSM significantly (P<0.05) influenced all the haematological variables except RBC and serum biochemical variables except ALB and CREAT. Birds fed with diet containing 15% had the optimum performance; hence, APSM can be   included at 15% in the diets of quails.

Keywords: African pear seed, quail birds, Nutritional values, Haematology, Blood Biochemistry