Adopting Intraclass Correlation Principles to Estimate the Consistency of Egg Production of Quails Supplemented with Metabolic Enhancer

Abstract

Abstract Betaine as metabolic enhancer is proven to improve eggs production in poultry. The consistency of the improvement, however, is not yet explored. This study aimed to explore the consistency of quails’ egg production under the influence of betaine supplementation utilizing intraclass correlation approach. In total 225 quails were used and allotted into three treatment groups: T0 (control), T1 (control + 0.06% betaine) and T2 (control + 0.12% betaine). Each treatment was replicated five times with 15 quails each. Egg production data was collected for 2 clutches (2 × 28 days) started after egg production reached 50%. The data was split and averaged into eight consecutive weeks. Linear model resulted in significant difference of egg production mean among treatments which were 66.08±18.39%, 70.55±15.11% and 75.46±14.88% for T0, T1 and T2 respectively (P<0.01).Intraclass correlation within each treatment was used as the measure of egg production consistency. Every replicate was recorded ineight consecutive weeks during the experiment. Results showed that T2 has the highest intraclass correlation (0.88), followed by T1 (0.86) and T0 (0.79). Our findings confirmed that betaine supplementation improve quails’ egg production. We further discover that the improvement obtained during experimental period due to betaine supplementation was more consistent compared to the quails without supplementation.