Effects of Saline Drinking Water on Growth Performance and Mortality Rate of Japanese Quails (Coturnix coturnix Japonica

Özet

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of added differentlevels of common salt in drinking water on the production performanceand mortality rate in Japanese quail chicks. A total of 600 one-day old(8.61±0.21 grams) Japanese quail chicks divided into six treatmentgroups and five replicates of 20 birds per experimental units, based oncompletely randomized design for 42 days. All groups were fed thesame diets and only amount of salt in the water differed. Control groupconsumed conventional drinking water and other treatments have1.32, 2.80, 3.80, 5.56 and 7.12 grams of salt per liter which was equalto 233 ppm total dissolved solids (TDS) for control group and 1233,2233, 3233, 4233 and 5233 ppm for other experimental groups,respectively. The results showed that feed intake (FI), body weightgain (BWG), live body weight (LBW) and feed conversion ratio (FCR)were significantly affected by water salinity (p> 0.0001). The highestFI and worst FCR were for treatment containing 5233 ppm TDSwhereas the best FCR have been observed for treatments containing233, 1233 and 2233 ppm TDS. The mortality rate also significantlyincreased by the increasing TDS level in drinked water (p> 0.0001). Inconclusion, in order to maintain quail chicks performance at economicand acceptable range as well as least mortality, amount of TDS indrinking water should not be more than 2233 ppm.