Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Haematology of Grower Japanese Quails as Affected by Processing Methods of African Breadfruit (Treculia africana) Seed

Abstract

A total of two hundred seventy growing Japanese male quail birds were fed with
parboiled (PB) and varying boiling time of African Breadfruit, ABF (Treculia
africana) seed to evaluate the performance, carcass characteristics and
haematological parameters of the growing male quail fed the African Breadfruit
seed. Six dietary treatments with a control treatment (T ) without ABF, parboiled 1
o
ABFat100 C(T ) and four varying cooking intervals of 10, 20, 30 and 40 minutes 2
starting from time of boiling representing T , T , T and T respectively were 3 4 5 6
investigated. The birds were fed the experimental diet from 2-6weeks. Data were
collected and analyzed for carcass characteristics and haematology parameters
with 9 birds representing a treatment in a complete randomized design. Results
shows that performance parameters of final body weight, weight gain, feed
conversion ratio and cost/kg weight gain had significant (P<0.05) differences
however, initial bodyweight, total feed intake and daily feed intake had no significant
(P>0.05) difference. The carcass and visceral organs all had significant (P<0.05)
differences with PB treatment having better carcass characteristics. Most of
haematological parameters measured were significantly (P<0.05) different
although PCV, RBC, heterophil and MCV had no (P>0.05) difference. It can be
concluded that cooking African Breadfruit at parboiling time is adequate for quails
performance no adverse health implications