DROPPINGS RECYCLING BY THEIR FEEDING TO J APANESE-QUAIL ON A LOW-PROTEIN DIET

The effect of feeding dried quail droppings in a low protein diet was investigated in the quail at tile age of 1 to 26 weeks with respect to Japanese quail performance and its reversibility after repeated trans ition to a higher level of crude protein (Tab. I). The administration of low-protein diet decreased quail body weight by 11.3% (P < 0.01) at the end of their rearing - Tab. IV. Droppings feeding in this diet de creased body weight by 5.5% (P < 0.05), but there was no difference at a medium level. Droppings feeding made it possible to save 18.5% and 17.2% of grains per quail. Grain mix conversion at droppings feeding i mproved by 12.5% (P > 0.05) and by 31.5% (P < 0.01) at a lower and hig her protein content, respectively. Mortality was higher at a low-prote in diet combined with droppings due to cannibalism (17.4%). The low co ntent of dietary crude protein delayed sexual maturity. The low-protei n diet decreased egg production by 22.2% and egg weight by 16.3% (P < 0.01) - Tab. V. Droppings feeding in the low protein diet reduced egg production by 18.1% and egg. weight by 11.5% (P < 0.01), but there was no difference at the higher protein content. Reversibility of egg pro duction and egg weight, even when droppings were fed, was observed aft er transition from feeding a low crude protein diet to feeding a diet with higher crude protein content (Tab. VI). A decrease in dietary pro tein resulted in the reduced weight of egg and its constituents (P < 0 .01), without a change in their ratios, and in an increase in egg shap e index (P < 0.01) - Tab. VII. Feeding droppings and higher content of crude protein led to a decrease in egg shell weight and proportion (P < 0.05) while feeding the low content of crude protein in addition le d to a decrease in albumen and yolk weight and egg shape index. On the other hand, albumen index increased (P < 0.01). There were no signifi cant changes in egg fertilization and hatchability. No significant dif ference was observed in feed intake between the groups (P > 0.05). Dro ppings Feeding made it possible to save 16.2% of grains per quail at t he higher content of protein and 22.5% at low dietary protein (P < 0.0 1). Low-protein mix decreased feed conversion by 53.6% (P < 0.01). Dro ppings feeding at a higher dietary protein reduced feed conversion by 5.2% (P > 0.05), while such a decrease made 35.5% at a low-protein die t (P < 0.01). Grain conversion improved by 16.0% at a higher content o f protein, and it remained worse by 8.4% at low dietary protein (P < 0 .01). A similar trend could be observed for droppings feeding in the s econd part of the trial. In comparison with the high-protein mix, feed ing the low-protein mix reduced protein intake per quail by 40.4% (P < 0.01). Crude protein conversion improved by 5.0% at a low-protein mix ture (P > 0.05). When feeding droppings in combination with the higher crude protein content, their conversion was lower by 4.6% (P > 0.05), but it was lower by 36.6% (P < 0.01) at the low-protein diet. The liv e weight of quails was lower (P < 0.01) in both groups with low-protei n diet. Experimental diets did not influence quail mortality to a larg er extent. It can be concluded that while feeding 20% of droppings in feed mix with a medium content of crude protein (20%), at the isoprote in and isoenergy content, did not result in any larger changes in perf ormance, besides the improvement of grain mix conversion, feeding 20% of droppings at a low-protein mix (12.5%) had negative impacts on near ly all indicators of performance. Reversibility of egg production and egg weight was observed after transition to uniform feeding.