Effects of dietary supplementation of vitamin E on reproductive performance of Japanese laying quails
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of vitamin E on reproductive performance of Japanese (JP) laying quails from 49 - 132 days of age. A total of 40 JP quails of 49 days of age were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 dietary treatments and there were 10 replicate cages per treatment with each JP quail per replicate. The experimental diets were as follows: (1) the control was a basal diet without vitamin E supplementation (KPCS); (2) E75 consisted of KPCS supplemented with 75 mg vitamin E per kg of feed; (3) E100 consisted of KPCS supplemented with 100 mg vitamin E per kg feed, and (4) E125 consisted of KPCS supplemented with 125 mg vitamin E per kg of feed. The experiment was carried out for 12 weeks from December 23th, 2019 to March 15th, 2020. The results showed that from 105-132 days of age, the laying rate and egg weight of the E100 (93.57% and 11.42 g), control (90% and 11.58 g) and E75 (89.29% and 11.39 g) were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those of the E125 (79.44% and 10.04 g), respectively. There were no significant differences among treatments in feed consumption and feed conversion ratio (P > 0.05). Egg parameters such as eggshell weight and its percentage, albumin percentage and eggshell thickness were significantly different among treatments (P < 0.05). Briefly, it is suggested that either 75 mg or 100 mg of vitamin E should be added to the feed to improve the egg performance of JP quails.