Desempenho de codornas europeias em produção alimentadas com farelo de gérmen de milho

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the substitution of maize by corn germ meal in diets for european laying quails. A total of 120 female quail of the 107 - day - old European pedigree, distributed in a completely randomized design with three treatments and eight replicates per treatment were housed in 24 metal cages representing an experimental plot with 5 birds per plot. The parameters evaluated were: number of eggs per bird housed, egg weight, laying rate, mean daily feed intake and feed conversion per egg mass in two production cycles, each of 28 days of egg collection. In the first laying cycle, no statistical differences were observed for the number of eggs per bird housed, posture rate and average daily feed consumption, however, there was an increase in egg weight and improvement in feed conversion. In the second production cycle, no statistical differences were observed for the number of eggs per bird housed and consumption of daily ration, but egg weight, egg laying rate and feed conversion improvement were observed. It was concluded that the substitution of maize by corn germ meal in diets for European quails up to 100% increases the production rate and egg weight and improves the feed conversion rate of the birds.