Methionine supplementation to quails diet improves egg weight consistency

Abstract

Methionine is an essential amino acid which plays important roles in metabolism. Methionine sufficiency is expressed in the animals’ performance. This research aimed to study the effect of methionine supplementation on the consistency of quail’ egg weight. There were three treatments groups with five replicates of 15 birds each as follows: D0 (control), D1 (control + 0.06% methionine) and D2 (control + 0.12% methionine). The egg weight data were collected for two periods of 28 days (2 × 28 days) started from when the egg productions reached 50% (63 days of age). The D1 and D2 yielded heavier egg than D0 (P<0.01). The data were split and averaged into eight weeks and were divided into two subsets: the consistency of the first period (1st–4th week) and second period (5th–8th week). Intraclass correlation was used as the measure of egg weight consistency. Result showed that intraclass correlation of D0, D1 and D2 in the first period were 0.29, 0.79 and 0.63 respectively; whereas in the second period were -0.11, 0.54 and 0.08 respectively. Intraclass correlation of D1 and D2 were higher than D0. Finally, methionine supplementation in the quail’ diet consistently increases egg weight.