Digestibility enhancer affects quail growth trajectory at growing phase

Abstract

Growth is a biological process which determines the animal performance. The experiment observed the growth trajectory of quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) fed diet supplemented with silica+ as digestibility enhancer. In total, 798 female quails aged two weeks were used in the experiment and allotted randomly into three treatments and seven replications of 38 quails. The treatments were a basal diet without supplement (T0), a basal diet supplemented with 200 ppm and 300 ppm silica+ as T1 and T2, respectively. The quails were weighed individually for seven consecutive weeks (week 3 to 9). The means of each week were then plotted to visualize the growth trajectories. A linear model (α=0.05) was employed to test the difference in weekly body weight among treatment groups. The trajectory plots showed that growth performances of the quails were similar at week 3-7. However, started from week eight, the growth trajectory of T1 and T2 began to deviate from the control. This the results of linear model analysis confirmed this finding. At week eight, the body weights were 140.00±12.07 g, 143.80±13.04 g and 146.60±14.66 g for T0, T1, and T2, respectively. Whereas at week nine, the body weights were 150.30±12.28 g, 157.40±16.98 g and 160.20±14.71 g for T0, T1, and T2, respectively. In both weeks, T2 showed significant differences when compared to T0 (P<0.05). It concludes that silica+ as digestibility enhancer affects growth trajectory of quails at the growing phase.