Silagem de mandioca na alimentação de codornas

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the effect of inclusion level of cassava root silage in the feeding of meat quails. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with 6 treatments and 6 repetitions with 14 birds each. The treatments consisted of diets containing different levels of inclusion of cassava silage, being dry matter of the treatments corrected (MSc) according to the diet with 20% inclusion and a control treatment without correction of dry matter (0%, 0%DMc, 5%DMc, 10%DMc, 15%DMc and 20%). The variables analysed were feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion, weights and yields of carcass, breast, wings, legs (thighs and drumsticks), dorsum and edible viscera (heart, liver and gizzard). There was a linear effect (P <0.05) for weight gain of birds from 8 to 14 days old and quadratic effect (P <0.05) for weight gain in the period from 8 to 21 days old. The feed intake of the birds was influenced (P <0.05) by linearly levels of cassava silage in periods from 22 to 28, 29 to 35, 36 to 42, and 8 to 42 days old. Moreover, the total periods there was not effect (P> 0.05) over the weight gain and feed conversion in birds. The inclusion levels of cassava silage influenced (P <0.05) quadratically carcass weight, breast, weight and percentage of gizzards. The absolute and relative weight of wings was influenced linearly decreasing (P <0.05) as they get increased inclusion levels of cassava silage. According to the results, one may use up to 20% cassava silage for feeding meat quails.