Nutrient digestibility and serum biochemistry of laying quails (Cortunix cortunix japonica) fed sugarcane scrapping meal-based diets supplemented with exogenous enzyme

The study was carried out to investigate the effect of Maxigrain enzyme supplementation of sugarcane scrapping meal-based diets on the nutrient digestibility and serum biochemical variables of laying Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) in ant 8 week experiment. Six experimental diets tagged T100, T10100, T10200, T150, T15100 and T15200 were formulated to be isonitrogenous (20%CP) and isocaloric (2786.72 Kcal/kg ME). Diets T100, T10100 and T10200 contained 10% crude fibre and 0, 100 and 200 ppm enzyme while T150, T15100 and T10200 contained 15% crude fibre and 0, 100 and 200 ppm enzyme, such that T100 and T150 function as the control for T10100 and T10200, and T15100 and T15200, respectively. Three hundred and sixty 6 weeks old laying quails were randomly allocated to the dietary treatments at the rate of 60 birds per diet. Each treatment was replicated 4 times in a 3 x 2 factorial arrangement having 15 birds per replicate. The results showed that enzyme supplementation improved (P<0.05) significantly the digestibility of dry matter (62.21 vs.63.03 and 63.28%), crude protein (67.25 vs. 67.87 and 69.14%), crude fibre (70.19 vs.78.14 and 81.66%), ether extract (65.37 vs.67.28 and 665.29%), nitrogen free extract (43.77 vs.43.65 and 43.18%), neutral detergent fibre (43.76 vs.55.35 and 56.34%), acid detergent fibre (57.33 vs.48.85 and 48.20%), acid detergent lignin (39.40 vs.48.34 and 48.31%), hemicellulose (55.66 vs. 57.24 and 67.57%), glucose (20.15 vs.19.15 and 16.18 g/dl), protein (31.25 vs.30.25 and 30.75 g/dl), cholesterol (7.78 vs.7.38 and 8.55 mg/dl) and creatinine (39.47 vs.37.82 and 39.15 mg/dl) for no enzyme, 100 ppm and 200 ppm enzyme supplemented diets, respectively. Similarly, dietary fibre depressed the digestibility of dry matter (66.79 and 53.77%), crude protein (68.80 and 52.22%), nitrogen free extract (43.76 and 39.80%), neutral detergent fibre (58.42 and 45.44%), acid detergent fibre (57.14 and 44.36%), hemicellulose (64.45 and 50.43%) and glucose (18.88 and 18.10g/dl) but improved (P<0.05) those of acid detergent lignin (43.55 and 54.54%), protein (30.33 and 31.17 g/dl), cholesterol (7.70 and 8.10 mg/dl) and creatinine (37.85 and 39.78 mg/dl). The interactive effects of enzyme and dietary fibre influenced (P<0.05) neutral detergent fibre and cellulose only. In view of the outstanding performance of the quails fed the high fibre-high enzyme supplemented diets, quail farmers can use the combination for compounding laying quail diets.