Vol. 9, Issue 3, Part F (2024)

Author(s): VD Borkar, ST Pachpute, DK Kamble, DK Deokar, SB Adangle and AT Lokhande

Abstract: The present experiment was conducted at the Poultry Unit, Veterinary Polyclinic and A.I. Center, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy Science, Post Graduate Institute, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri Dist. Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India. The feeding trial of six weeks for growth performance was conducted which were subjected to four treatments and designated as treatment T_0, T₁, T₂ and T_3, respectively. Total 160 day-old chicks were selected for the experiment. The chicks fed with basal diet in control group (T₀), while chicks in treatment T₁, T₂ and T₃ were fed basal diet with Azolla meal powder @ 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 percent each, respectively. All the birds were given isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets thought the experimental period. The significant results observed in carcass parameters such as dressing percentage, breast percentage, thigh percentage and giblet percentage was significantly higher in treatment feeding with 7.5 percent level of Azolla meal. The serum cholesterol levels decrease as the level of azolla meal increased in the ration of Japanese quail. The inclusion of azolla in the diet had non-significant effect on moisture, protein, fat and ash content in the breast and thigh tissues.