Studies on the Amino Acid and Protein Requirements of Laying Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)1

Studies on the Amino Acid and Protein Requirements of Laying Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)1 NEIL K. ALLEN 2 and R. J. YOUNG 3 Department of Poultry Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850 (Received for publication July 23, 1979) ABSTRACT Six experiments were conducted to define the amino acid and protein requirements of laying Japanese quail. In the initial experiments the diets contained 12% protein from a mixture of casein and soybean meal and were supplemented with essential amino acids and glutamic acid to promote optimum egg production. Later studies were conducted with corn-soybean meal diets. Results from varying the levels of essential amino acids led to. the following estimates of amino acid requirements (as percent of the diet): arginine, 1.13; histidine, .38; isoleucine, .81; leucine, 1.28; lysine, .86; methionine plus cystine, .68; phenylalanine plus tyrosine, 1.25; threonine, .67; tryptophan, .17; and valine, .83. These amino acid requirements are correlated with the amino acid composition of quail eggs (r = .74). The total protein requirement of laying Japanese quail was found to be slightly greater than 16% of the diet when quail were fed diets based on either casein and soybean meal alone or casein and soybean meal supplemented with essential amino acids and glutamic acid. Based on the consumption of from 18 to 19 g of this diet per day the daily protein requirement was 2.88 to 3.08 g. Quail fed a methionine supplemented corn-soybean meal diet consumed up to 22 g of feed per day resulting in an estimated protein requirement of 3.52 g per day. (Key words: Japanese quail, amino acid requirement, protein requirement, egg production, coturnix quail) 1980 Poultry Science 59:2029-2037 INTRODUCTION T h e protein r e q u i r e m e n t of laying Japanese quail has been r e p o r t e d b y V o h r a a n d R o u d y bush ( 1 9 7 1 ) t o be 2 5 % of t h e diet. In a m o r e comprehensive s t u d y , Begin a n d Insko ( 1 9 7 2 ) showed t h a t laying quail required 2 0 % p r o t e i n when fed a medium-energy diet and 22% p r o t e i n when fed a high-energy diet which c o n t a i n e d 10% lard. T h e y c o n c l u d e d t h a t for m a x i m u m egg yield, laying quail require n o t less t h a n 4 . 7 1 g of p r o t e i n p e r day w h e n laying at t h e rate of 7 8 t o 80%. K u m a r et al. ( 1 9 7 8 ) r e c o m m e n d e d 2 2 % p r o t e i n at 2 9 0 0 kcal ME. There are virtually n o estimates of t h e a m i n o acid r e q u i r e m e n t s of t h e laying J a p a n e s e quail (Vohra, 1971).

'Presented in part at the 57th annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Atlantic City, NJ, April 15-20, 1973. Fed. Proc. 32:894. (Abstr.). 2 Present address: Department of Animal Science, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108. 3 Present address: Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850. 4 Cages were 15 cm wide, 18 cm deep, and 19 cm high each with an individual feeder and Hart cup waterer. Cages were side by side in double rows with 4 decks per battery.

This species has m a n y desirable characteristics as a research m o d e l for t h e s t u d y of t h e nutritional r e q u i r e m e n t s for egg p r o d u c t i o n , including small b o d y size, early sexual m a t u r i t y , and high rate of egg p r o d u c t i o n . Therefore, t h e p r e s e n t series of e x p e r i m e n t s was c o n d u c t e d t o d e t e r m i n e b o t h t h e essential a m i n o acid a n d t h e total protein r e q u i r e m e n t s for m a x i m u m egg yield for t h e i n b r e d strain of J a p a n e s e quail used in o u r l a b o r a t o r y .

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Japanese quail which h a d been selected for a high rate of egg p r o d u c t i o n , when k e p t in single cages, were reared on a commercial t u r k e y starter diet in floor pens until 6 weeks of age. T h e y were t h e n fed a commercial t u r k e y breeder diet until m a x i m u m egg p r o d u c t i o n a n d nearly m a x i m a l egg size were achieved ( 1 0 t o 12 weeks of age). At this time, female Japanese quail were m o v e d from t h e floor pens t o individual cages 4 in a cage b a t t e r y h o u s e d in an environmentally c o n t r o l l e d r o o m where t h e t e m p e r a t u r e was m a i n t a i n e d a t 2 1 i 1 C. T h e quail were given 15 h r of light before a n d 17 h r of light after being m o v e d into t h e e x p e r i m e n t a l cages.

2029

Each quail was fed t h e t u r k e y breeder diet

2030

ALLEN AND YOUNG

for a 2- to 3-week period at which time they were gradually shifted, over a one-week period, to a purified, casein-soybean meal diet containing 18% protein. This diet was similar to the experimental diets. Egg yields (total mass of eggs produced) during the pretest period were used to form uniform replicate groups which were randomly assigned to the various treatments. The quail were weighed at the beginning and end of each experiment. All eggs were recorded, collected daily, and stored at 4 C. Feed and eggs were weighed at weekly intervals. The data for all experiments were subjected to analyses of variance with appropriate single degree of freedom comparisons among treatment means (Steel and Torrie, 1960). The pooled standard errors of the treatment means are reported. These were calculated from the error mean square of the analyses of variance. Basal diet A (Table 1) was formulated to provide adequate levels of all known nutrients

s

Technicon Chromatography Corp., Chauncey, NY, Model TSM Technicon Amino Acid Analyzer.

except for amino acids and protein. The composition of the casein-soybean meal protein mixture (C-SBM) is given in footnote a, Table 1. Previous results in this laboratory showed that feeding this mixture to provide 18% protein would support excellent egg production in laying Japanese quail. However, 12% protein from this mixture was deficient in protein and amino acids. These diets contained 3150 kcal ME/kg. The composition of the essential amino acid mixtures (EAA) used in the various experiments is shown in Table 2. EAA-1 simulates the essential amino acids provided by 6% protein from C-SBM. The amino acid composition values of ingredients used for calculations were those reported by Scott et al. (1969). Previous results had indicated that the addition of this amino acid mixture plus glutamic acid to a diet containing 12% protein from C-SBM supported egg production equivalent to that obtained from quail fed a diet containing 18% protein from C-SBM. The compositions of the other amino acid mixtures will be discussed with each experiment. The amino acid composition of Japanese quail eggs was determined by automatic column chromatography. 5 Weighed samples of freeze-

TABLE 1. Composition of diets Ingredients

Casein-soybean meal mixture 3 Corn Soybean meal Casein DL-methionine Diammonium citrate Corn oil CaC0 3 CaHPCv2H 2 <3 Mineral mixture" Vitamin mixture 0 Choline CI (70%) Cornstarch a

(%) variable

5.00 6.80 5.50 2.50 1.00 .50 100.00

48.58 23.13 .24 .15 1.75 9.13 6.80 5.50 2.50 1.00 .50 to 100.00

Composed of casein, 35.0%: soybean meal (50% protein), 63.0%; L-arginine HCl, 1.2%; and DL-methionine,

.8%. The mineral mixture provided the following (in g/kg of diet): NaCl, 3.25; MnSO„"H 2 0, .35; F e S 0 4 - 7 H 2 0 , .60; MgS0 4 , 5.00; KI, .005; C u S 0 4 ' 5 H 2 0 , .02; ZnO, .10; CoCl 2 '5H 2 C", .002; KHC0 3 , 15.00; NaMoO„'5H 2 0, .006; Na 2 Se0 4 , .0002; and glucose monohydrate to 25.00. The vitamin mixture provided the following per kilogram of diet: vitamin A as vitamin A palmitate (325,000 IU/g), 26,000 IU; vitamin D 3 (3,000 IU/g), 9,000 1U; vitamin E (110 IU/g), 220 IU; mendione Na bisulfite (63%), 4 mg; biotin, 1 mg; vitamin B 1 2 , .06 mg; d-Ca-pantothenate, 40 mg; folic acid, 12 mg; nicotinamide, 180 mg; pyridoxine HCl, 20 mg; riboflavin, 30 mg; thiamin HCl, 30 mg; ethoxyquin (67%), 400 mg; and glucose monohydrate to 10 g.

AMINO ACID REQUIREMENTS OF JAPANESE QUAIL dried, ground, partially fat extracted quail eggs were hydrolyzed at 110 C for 22 hr with 6N hydrochloric acid. The mixture of acid and sample was purged with nitrogen gas prior to sealing and heat treatment.

2031

TABLE 2. Composition of essential amino acid mixtures (EAA) Amino acid

1

2

3

4

(n>)

RESULTS The first experiment (Table 3) was designed to examine which and how much of the various essential amino acids needed to be included in EAA-1. Diet 1 contained 18.46% C-SBM which supplied 12% protein. Diet 2 contained 27.69% C-SBM providing 18% protein. There was a significant (P<.05) increase in egg yield, feed consumption, egg production, and a smaller loss of body weight from the addition of 6% protein from C-SBM. In treatment 3, the addition of EAA-1 plus glutamic acid to the 12% protein basal diet resulted in a significant increase in egg yield, feed consumption, and egg production as compared to the quail fed the 12% protein diet. This response was not significantly different from that of the quail fed the 18% protein from C-SBM. Treatments 4 through 12 were the complete deletion of each of the various amino acids from EAA-1. Except for

L-arginine L-histidine L-isoleucine L-leucine L-lysine HC1 DL-methionine L-phenylalanine L-threonine L-tryptophan L-valine Total

.17

.43 .17 .35 .54 .54 .22 .33 .26 .07 .39

.20 .21 .21 .12 .04 .26 .03 .26

.27 .05 .20 .21 .21 .22 .04 .26 .03 .26

3.30

1.50

1.75

08 22 10 11 21 72

histidine and threonine, there was no significant (P>.05) effect of deleting any of the amino acids. Deletion of histidine resulted in the highest egg yield (8.14 g/day) and deletion of threonine resulted in the lowest egg yield (6.19 g/day). The difference between these two treatments was significant (P<.05). The effects of deleting the other amino acids were inter-

TABLE 3. Effect of deletion of amino acids from essential amino acid misture 1 (EAA-1) on performance of adult female Japanese quail (Experiment l)a

Addition to basal diet A

1) 18.46% C-SBMb 2) 27.69% C-SBM 3 ) A s l + 3.30% E A A - 1 + 9.00% L-Glu 4) As 3 minus L-arginine 5) As 3 minus L-histidine 6) As 3 minus L-isoleucine 7) As 3 minus L-leucine and L-lysine HC1 8) As 3 minus DL-methionine 9) As 3 minus L-phenylalanine 10) As 3 minus L-threonine 11) As 3 minus L-tryptophan 12) As 3 minus L-valine Pooled SEMC

Change in body weight

Egg yield

Feed consumption

Egg production

(g/day)

(g/day)

(%)

5.82 7.95

15.9 17.9

71.0 83.6

-20.7 -5.8

7.10 7.37 8.14 7.01

17.2 16.2 18.1 17.5

77.9 82.2 87.7 77.6

-.8 -14.6 -5.5 -2.8

7.37 7.04 7.92 6.19 7.51 6.85 .41

17.1 15.0 16.3 15.9 16.9 16.5 .48

82.5 81.9 87.9 73.6 80.5 77.0 4.4

-6.3 -17.1 -5.5 -9.7 -8.6 -7.8 2.4

(g/3 weeks)

''There were 12 individually fed quail per treatment with an average initial weight of 132.7 g. This experiment was of 3 weeks duration. Casein-soybean meal mixture, footnote a, Table 1. Standard error of the mean.

2032

ALLEN AND YOUNG

m e d i a t e between t h e results for histidine and threonine. T h e values for egg yield were used t o calculate an index for revising EAA-1. Since deletion of histidine resulted in t h e highest egg yield, histidine was completely deleted from t h e revised m i x t u r e . However, since t h e deletion of threonine resulted in the lowest egg yield, t h r e o n i n e was left at t h e same level in t h e revised m i x t u r e . Subtracting t h e egg yield for deletion of t h r e o n i n e from t h e egg yield resulting from t h e deletion of each of t h e o t h e r a m i n o acids and dividing this value by t h e difference in egg yields between deletion of t h r e o n i n e and histidine provided an i n d e x 6 to calculate t h e p r o p o r t i o n of each a m i n o acid t o be excluded in a revised m i x t u r e , EAA-2 (Table 2). F o r example, phenylalanine resulted in nearly t h e same egg yield as deletion of histidine. Thus, only a small p r o p o r t i o n of t h e original a m o u n t of phenylalanine was left in the revised m i x t u r e .

6E

gg yield (amino acid) - Egg yield (threonine)

Egg yield (histidine) - Egg yield (threonine) The proportion of the amount of the particular amino acid in EAA-1 which was deleted to give the amount of EAA-2.

An e x p e r i m e n t to evaluate EAA-2 showed t h a t 1.5% of EAA-2 plus 9.74% L-glutamic acid resulted in 6.79 g of egg yield per day as c o m p a r e d t o 7.85 g of egg yield per day from feeding EAA-1 plus 9% L-glutamic acid. This significant ( P < . 0 5 ) difference in egg yield indicated t h a t EAA-2 was i n a d e q u a t e . E x p e r i m e n t 2 (Table 4) was designed t o e x a m i n e w h e t h e r addition of certain essential a m i n o acids t o EAA-2 would improve egg yields.Treatment 1 c o n t a i n e d 12% protein from C-SBM while t r e a t m e n t 2 contained 18% protein. As observed in t h e previous e x p e r i m e n t and in all s u b s e q u e n t e x p e r i m e n t s , there was a significant ( P < . 0 5 ) increase in egg yield of quail fed the 18% protein from C-SBM as c o m p a r e d t o t h e 12% protein. A d d i t i o n of EAA-1 plus glutamic acid ( t r e a t m e n t 3) t o t h e 12% protein basal diet resulted in egg yield essentially equivalent t o t h e egg yield s u p p o r t e d by t h e 18% protein. Comparison of t r e a t m e n t s 3 and 4 again indicated t h a t EAA-2 was n o t equivalent t o E A A - 1 . A d d i t i o n of m e t h i o n i n e and arginine t o EAA-2 in t r e a t m e n t 5 resulted in an increase of egg yields from 7.15 t o 8.07 g/day. T h e additions of t h r e o n i n e , histidine, a n d leucine in t r e a t m e n t s 6, 7, and 8, respectively, also resulted in increased egg yields. T r e a t m e n t 9, t h e addition of all of t h e above a m i n o acids,

TABLE 4. Effect of amino acid additions to essential amino acid mixture 2 (EAA-2) on performance of adult female Japanese quail (Experiment 2)a

Addition to basal diet A

1) 18.46% C-SBMt> 2) 27.69% C-SBM 3) As 1 + 3.30% EAA - 1 + 9.00% L-Glu 4) As 1 + 1.50% EAA - 2 + 10.00% L-Glu 5) As 4 +.10% DL-methionine + .10% L-arginine 6) As 4 + .10% L-threonine 7) As 4 + 10% L-histidine 8) As 4 + 10% L-leucine 9) As 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 Pooled SEMC

Change in body weight

E

gg yield

Feed consumption

(g/day)

(g/day)

(%)

5.93 7.99

16.4 18.2

69.0 88.2

-10.6 -2.4

7.78

18.4

85.9

1.3

7.15

16.9

80.9

-3.6

8.07 7.73 7.94 8.00 7.79 .32

18.0 17.5 18.0 18.1 18.8 .42

91.1 82.4 87.3 88.2 83.7 3.5

.9 -.9 2.6 .6 .1 1.7

Egg production

(g/4 weeks)

''There were 16 individually fed quail per treatment with an average initial weight of 134.2 g. This experiment was of 4 weeks duration. Casein-soybean meal mixture, footnote a, Table 1. Standard error of the mean.

AMINO ACID REQUIREMENTS OF JAPANESE QUAIL

resulted in a similar increase in egg yield. The results of this experiment are difficult to interpret, in that it is hard to rationalize how each of the essential amino acids added would give a positive response. It was decided to add . 1 % methionine, .l%arginine, and .05%histidine to EAA-2 and test this new amino acid mixture. The composition of this mixture is given in Table 2 (EAA-3). In Experiment 3 (Table 5) EAA-3 was compared to EAA-1 and the total protein requirement of laying Japanese quail was examined. Treatments 1 and 2 were diets containing 12 and 18% protein from C-SBM as in previous experiments. Treatment 3 was the addition of EAA-3 to the 12% protein basal diet, but this diet was low in total protein. Treatments 4 through 9 were the graded additions of L-glutamic acid to diet 3 which, except for treatment 8, gave a nonsignificant (P>.05) response in egg yields. The egg yield from diet 8 was significantly (P<.05) greater than that for the other treatments. However, this appears to be a random occurrence, since the egg yield for diet 9 was equivalent to the other treatments. These results show that the total protein requirement of laying Japanese quail is not greater than 16% (diet 5). Addition of EAA-1 plus glutamic acid to the 12% protein

2033

basal diet (treatment 10) resulted in egg yield equivalent to the egg yield from diets 3 through 9. It is concluded that EAA-3 is adequate to support good egg production in laying Japanese quail. Experiment 4 (Table 6) was designed to determine the level of essential amino acids necessary to support maximum egg production in laying Japanese quail. Levels of 70, 80, 90, 100, and 110% of the combination of 18.46% C-SBM plus EAA-3 were fed in diets 1 through 5, respectively. The level of glutamic acid was adjusted to maintain 16% total protein equivalent. Egg yields increased up to treatment 3 (90% of this mixture). Treatment 4 (100%) gave essentially the same egg yield as treatment 3 and prevented the loss in body weight. Treatment 5 (110%) gave greater egg yields than treatment 4. This difference in egg yields between treatments 4 and 5 appears to be due to an increase in feed consumption from 18.6 to 19.3 g/day. There was no significant difference in body weight change between treatments 4 and 5. Treatment 6 was 12% protein from C-SBM plus EAA-3 with no added glutamic acid and contained 13.66% protein. Treatments 7, 8, and 9 were levels of 12, 16, and 18% protein, respectively, from C-SBM.

TABLE 5. Total protein requirement of adult female Japanese quail fed essential amino acid mixture 3 (EAA-3) (Experiment 3)a

Addition to basal diet A

1) 18.46% C-SBMb 2) 27.69% C-SBM 3) As 1 + 1.75% EAA - 3 4) As 3 + 2.00% L-Glu 5) As 3 + 4.00% L-Glu 6) As 3 + 6.00% L-Glu 7) As 3 + 8.00% L-Glu 8) As 3 + 10.00% L-Glu 9) As 3 + 12.00% L-Glu 10) As 3 + 3.30% E A A - 1 + 5.65% L-Glu Pooled SEMC

Protein

Egg yield

Feed consumption

Egg production

Change in body weight

(%)

(g/day)

(g/day)

(%)

(g/4 weeks)

12.00 18.00 13.66 14.85 16.04 17.23 18.42 19.61 20.80

5.87 8.30 7.96 8.04 8.29 8.26 8.12 9.16 8.14

15.8 17.5 18.1 17.7 17.9 17.8 17.9 19.3 18.6

70.1 89.3 86.5 87.2 87.0 88.3 90.3 92.6 87.2

-21.4 -9.4 -9.6 -10.1 -6.3 -8.1 -6.6 -5.5 -7.5

18.42

8.20 .29

17.6 .48

86.2 3.1

-7.9 1.7

There were 14 individually fed quail per treatment with an average initial weight of 141.5 g. This experiment was of 4 weeks duration. Casein-soybean meal mixture, footnote a, Table 1. Standard error of the mean.

2034

ALLEN AND YOUNG TABLE 6. Effect of variable levels of casein-soybi n meal mixture (C-SBM) and essential amino acid mixture 3 (EAA-3) on performance of aa 't female Japanese quail (Experiment 4)a Additions to basal diet A

C-SBMb

EAA - 3

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9)

1.225 1.400 1.575 1.750 1.925 1.750

L-glutamic acid

Egg yield

Feed consumption

Egg production

Change in body weight

(g/day)

(g/day)

(%)

(g/5 w

10.885 8.590 6.295 4.000 1.705

6.15 7.53 7.99 7.89 8.52 7.53 5.38 8.13 8.45 .31

16.3 17.5 18.4 18.6 19.3 17.9 16.1 19.4 19.5 .43

70.9 82.5 84.5 81.2 86.5 79.8 63.0 85.5 84.1 3.6

-13.7 -7.1 -9.5 2.1 -2.2 -4.5 -12.6 -3.9 -2.7 2.4

(\u)

12.922 14.768 16.614 18.460 20.306 18.460 18.460 24.620 27.690 Pooled SEMC

There were 16 individually fed quail per treatment with an average initial weight of 140.3 g. This experiment was of 5 weeks duration. Casein-soybean meal mixture, footnote a, Table 1. Standard error of the mean.

There was a large increase in egg yield and decrease in body weight loss when the protein was increased from 12 to 16% (treatments 7 and 8) with an intermediate response to the addition of 1.75% EAA-3 (treatment 6). Quail fed the 18% protein diet did not show a significant increase in egg yield. The loss in body weight was also minimal for quail fed the 16% protein diet. These results show that highproducing laying quail require not less than 16% protein when fed a semi-purified diet containing 3150 kcal/kg ME. However, either the amount or balance of essential amino acids provided in treatments 5 and 8 appear to stimulate feed consumption up to one gram of feed per quail per day. Quail consuming these diets showed a slightly higher production. For those quail consuming 18 g of feed per day their protein requirement appears to be met with a daily intake of 2.88 g of protein from the C-SBM plus 1.75% EAA-3 and 4% glutamic acid. In those cases where feed consumption was 19.3 g per day (treatments 5 and 8, Table 6) and egg yield was slightly higher, the protein requirement appears to be 3.08 g/day. A corn-soybean meal diet (Table 1, diet B)

'Amino acid composition values used for all ingredients were those reported by Scott et al. (1969).

was computer formulated to meet the estimated levels of amino acids provided by 12% protein from C-SBM plus EAA-3. 7 In order to provide this level of each amino acid, it was necessary to add EAA-4 (Table 2) to this diet. This diet contains 16% intact protein and amino acids plus diammonium citrate to bring the total protein equivalent up to 18%. It provided 3123 kcal/kg ME. In Experiment 5 (Table 7) the necessity of adding each amino acid in EAA-4 to this diet was tested. The deletion of the various amino acids from EAA-4 did not cause a significant (P>.05) change in any of the parameters measured. However, the decrease in body weight when either isoleucine and valine, lysine, or threonine were reduced indicated that the amount of these amino acids supplied in the basal diet B was borderline. The estimates of the amino acid requirements of laying Japanese quail were therefore lowered by the amounts of amino acids in EAA-4. These requirements are summarized in Table 8 along with the amino acid composition of quail eggs. There was a significant (P<.05) correlation (r = .74) between the amino acid requirement and the composition of the eggs. Quail which consumed from 19.3 to 19.6 g of this diet per day maintained excellent egg yield and positive body weight. This amount of diet provided from 3.47 to 3.52 g of protein per day.

AMINO ACID REQUIREMENTS OF JAPANESE QUAIL

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TABLE 7. Effect of deletion of amino acids from essential amino acid mixture 4 (EAA-4) on performance of adult female Japanese quail (Experiment 5)a

Additions to basal dietB

1) .72% EAA - 4 2) As 1 minus isoleucine and valine 3) As 1 minus methionine 4) As 1 minus lysine 5) As 1 minus threonine 6) .72% diammonium citrate 7) Turkey breeder^ Pooled SEMC

Egg yield

Feed consumption

Egg production

Change in body weight

(g/day)

(g/day)

(%)

(g/5 weeks)

8.74

19.6

88.0

4.4

8.80 8.84 8.43 8.56

19.5 19.9 19.1 19.3

90.2 86.1 87.8 88.0

-2.0 2.5 -.3 .2

8.30 8.61 .23

18.5 21.0 .42

88.8 86.9 2.3

-1.9 1.2 2.7

There were 14 individually fed quail per treatment with an average initial weight of 140.6 g. This experiment was of 5 weeks duration. A commercial diet used as a positive control. Standard error of the mean.

Experiment 6 was conducted to examine the protein requirement of laying Japanese quail fed a corn-soybean meal based diet. The protein level was varied from 22 down to 10% in increments of 3%. Both constant and variable protein compositions were studied. In diets 1 through 5 (Table 9), the ratio of corn to soybean meal was maintained constant as the protein level was decreased. It was necessary to add cornstarch and a nonnutritive diluent

TABLE 8. Estimated amino acid requirements of adult female Japanese quail for egg production and amino acid composition of their egg Requirement

Composition

(% of diet)

(mg/g egg)

Arginine 1.13 Histidine .38 Isoleucine .81 Leucine 1.28 Lysine .86 Methionine .37 Methionine + cystine .68 Phenylalanine .70 Phenylalanine + tyrosine 1.25 Threonine .67 Tryptophan .17 Valine .83

20.4 15.0 20.2 32.5 27.3 11.7 19.3 17.8 32.6 19.0 21.8

(cellulose) to maintain a constant level of metabolizable energy (2969 kcal/kg of diet). In diets 1, 6, 7, 8, and 9 (Table 9), the protein composition was varied by allowing corn to increase and soybean meal to decrease as the protein level was decreased. It was necessary to add some cellulose to maintain a constant energy level. Methionine was added to all diets to maintain the level of total sulfur amino acids at 3.8% of the protein. The results are summarized in Table 10. On the basis of egg yield, feed consumption, and egg production, levels of 22, 19, and 16% protein, supplied either in a constant ratio of corn and soybean meal or by variable amounts of these two ingredients, appeared equivalent. Levels of 13 and 10% protein gave significantly poorer results. Based on changes in body weight, it appears the 16% protein (constant ratio) was inferior to 19% protein, and when the ratio of corn to soybean meal was varied, both 19 and 16% protein did not support body weight equal to the 22% protein. Taking all criteria into consideration it appears that the protein requirement of laying Japanese quail is slightly greater than 16% when fed a cornsoybean meal type diet containing 2969 kcal/kg ME. Quail fed this diet consumed about 22 g of feed per quail per day, and thus, had an intake of 3.52 g of protein per day.

ALLEN AND YOUNG

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TABLE 9. Composition of corn-soybean meal diets Soybean meal 50% protein

Corn

Corn starch

Cellulose

DL-Met

Constant ingredients 1

Protein

1.77 3.68 5.58 7.46 1.71 3.55 5.38 7.20

.13 .11 .09 .07 .06 .10 .07 .04 .02

21.30 21.30 21.30 21.30 21.30 21.30 21.30 21.30 21.30

22 19 16 13 10 19 16 13 10

\i">

41.88 36.69 36.28 31.69 30.55 26.68 24.82 21.68 19.10 16.68 47.09 29.80 52.16 22.92 57.24 16.04 62.32 9.16 Turkey breeder

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10)

8.85 17.70 26.55 35.40

Composed of the following in percent of the diet: choline CI (70%), .50; CaC0 3 , 6.20; CaHP0 4 -2H 2 0, 4.40%; mineral mixture (footnote b, Table 1), 2.50; vitamin mixture (footnote c, Table 1), 1.00; and corn oil, 6.70.

DISCUSSION

Japanese quail laying at a high rate of production require 16% protein when the protein is supplied by a casein, soybean meal, arginine, methionine mixture (C-SBM), or the combination of C-SBM to provide 12% protein plus EAA-3 and glutamic acid. Quail consumed about 18 g/day of this diet, amounting to an intake of 2.9 g of protein per day. With the balance of amino acids that it provided, this amount of protein appeared adequate. In a few

cases feed consumption was stimulated to about 19.3 g/day and egg yield was slightly higher. Under these conditions the quail had an intake of 3.08 g of protein per day. Quail fed diets composed of corn, soybean meal, and corn oil had a higher level of feed intake (Tables 7 and 10) and appeared to require an intake of about 3.5 g of protein per day. Both of these estimates are significantly lower than the 4.71 g of protein per day which was required for maximum egg yields in the

TABLE 10. Protein requirement of adult female Japanese quail fed corn-soybean meal diets (Experiment 6)a

Treatment

1) 22% Protein 2) 19% Protein constant 3)16% Protein constant 4) 13% Protein constant 5) 10% Protein constant 6) 19% Protein variable 7) 16% Protein variable 8) 13% Protein variable 9) 10% Protein variable 10) Turkey breeder Pooled SEMb

Egg yield

Feed consumption

Egg production

Change in body weight

(g/day)

(g/day)

(%)

(g/5 weeks)

9.07 8.76 8.84 7.37 4.80 9.58 8.90 7.54 5.37 9.02 .24

22.7 22.3 21.2 19.4 15.8 22.2 22.0 20.6 17.6 23.8 .47

88.6 84.5 91.4 79.8 58.0 94.3 90.0 82.2 60.4 86.2 2.5

8.8 5.4 -.2 -12.2 -24.7 1.4 -1.9 -10.6 -23.4 3.9 2.0

"There were 14 individually fed quail per treatment with an average initial weight of 144.9 g. This experiment was of 5 weeks duration. Standard error of the mean.

AMINO ACID REQUIREMENTS OF JAPANESE QUAIL

experiments conducted by Begin and Insko (1972). The results from feeding the cornsoybean meal type diet indicated that the levels of isoleucine, valine, lysine, and threonine were close to the estimated requirement. The amount of total sulfur containing amino acids in the corn-soybean meal diet is somewhat below the estimated requirement shown in Table 8. However, the quail fed these diets consumed more protein and therefore were probably able to meet their methionine requirements by an overconsumption of total protein. The reason for the lower protein requirement of laying Japanese quail used in these experiments as compared to the higher levels reported by others (Vohra and Roudybush, 1971; Begin and Insko, 1972; Kumar et al., 1978) is not readily apparent. One difference is that previous studies have included the early stages of egg production and the later part of the growth phase. In these experiments all quail had peaked in production and had reached adult body weight. Another factor is the strain of quail. Those used in this series of experiments were selected for high egg yields when confined in individual cages designed to minimize feed wastage. This selection procedure resulted in a slightly larger quail which lays a larger egg with virtually no increase in the rate of egg production.

2037

Contrary to the results of Begin and Insko (1972), a deficiency of protein resulted in a substantial reduction in body weight. The difference in results may be due to the fact that their birds were fed the experimental diets prior to the onset of egg production. Our results show that the response to protein deficiency first results in a loss of body weight, then a decrease in egg size, followed by decreased feed consumption, and finally a decrease in number of eggs laid. REFERENCES Begin, J. J., and W. M. Insko, Jr., 1972. The effects of dietary protein level on the reproductive performance of coturnix breeder hens. Poultry Sci. 51:1662-1669. Kumar, V.S.K.B., B. Panda, V. R. Reddy, and V. R. Sadagopan, 1978. Protein and energy requirements for laying Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix jap onica). Pages 1350—1360 in Proc. XVI World's Poultry Congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Scott, M. L., M. C. Nesheim, and R. J. Young, 1969. Nutrition of the chicken. M. L. Scott & Ass., Ithaca, New York. Steel, R.G.D., and J. H. Torrie, 1960. Principles and procedures of statistics. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, NY. Vohra, P., 1971. A review of the nutrition of Japanese quail. World's Poultry Sci. J. 27:26-34. Vohra, P., and T. Roudybush, 1971. The effect of various levels of dietary protein on the growth and egg production of Coturnix coturnix japonica. Poultry Sci. 50:1081-1084.