development and evaluation of semi-purified diets for fiber related studies in japanese quails

an experiment was carried out to develop and evaluate a semi-purified diet suitable for fiber related studies without negative impacts on performance, serum biochemistry and intestinal morphology of growing japanese quails. total of 144 japanese quail chicks were used in a factorial arrangement using completely randomized design with 6 treatments, 4 replicates of 6 quails in each replicate. the levels of dietary crude fiber (3.37%, 1.18% and 0.08%, respectively) viz. high, medium and low crude fiber diets. the dietary supplementation levels of a commercial feed additive concentrate fiber-arbocel were considered 0 and 3 %. the medium crude fiber semi-purified diet produced acceptable growth performances comparable to conventional high crude fiber diet. serum triglyceride concentration was influenced by the levels of dietary crude fiber and the highest level was related to low crude fiber diet which was significantly different from high crude fiber diet (p<0.05). serum cholesterol level was higher in medium and low crude fiber groups compared to high crude fiber diet (p<0.01). villus height in duodenum and ileum of birds fed medium and high crude fiber diets were not different, the lowest crypt depth was observed in medium crude fiber diet. the overall results of these experiment showed that semi-purified medium fiber diet has no negative effects on the performance and other studied parameters. therefore, the application of semi-purified medium fiber (1.18%) is recommended in fiber related studies in order to elucidate the real potential of feed additive fibers.