Vitamin K supplementation for meat quail in growth of 1 to 14 days old

Abstract

The experiment was carried outto determine the levels of vitamin K for meat quails (Coturnixcoturnixsp) from 1 to 14 days of age. Atotal of 2200 birds were used, complete by random experimental design, with 8 treatments, 5 repetitions and 55 meat quails per experimental unit. The levels of vitamin K supplementation were 0; 0.7; 1.0; 1.3; 1.6; 1.9; 2.2; 2.5 mg/kg diets. The performance was measured through weighing weekly from the birds and feed, and at the end of the experiment was carried out collects blood and bones for the assessment of bone quality parameters. The levels of vitamin K supplementation had no influence on performance orbone quality, except thatthe bone density and calcium concentration of the femur and the bone density of the tibia showeda quadratic effect, with estimates of 0.98; 0.92 and 1.18 respectively. The length of the tibia showed a linear increase according to the levels of vitamin K. There was no effect in the concentration of serum calcium, but there was a quadratic effect in the concentration of alkaline phosphatase. The vitamin K supplementation did not affect the performance of the meat quails from 1 to 14 days of age, showing that the amount of vitamin K present in ground corn and soybean meal-based diets is sufficient to meet the needs of the birds’ performance.