Exogenous carbohydrases do not improve the physiological and meat quality parameters of female Japanese quail fed canola-based diets

In an internally controlled environment, a feeding trial using 210 six-week-old female Japanese quail (189.63 +/- 11.891 g liveweight) was conducted to evaluate the effect of carbohydrase-treated (endo-1.4-beta-xylanase 5600 TXU/g and endo-1.4-beta-glucanase 2500 TGU/g) canola-based diets on growth performance, haemo-biochemical parameters, carcass characteristics, and meat quality traits. Five isocaloric and isonitrogenous experimental diets were formulated: the control diet (CON) (commercial growers diet with no canola meal (CM) included); the control diet in which 17.5% of soybean meal was replaced with CM (CM0); and the CM0 diet in which a carbohydrase multi-enzyme was added at a rate of 5%, 10% and 15% (CM50, CM100 and CM150, respectively). Diets and clean water were offered ad libitum during the four-week experimental period. Average weekly feed intake (AWFI) and average weekly weight gain (AWG) were used to calculate feed conversion efficiency (FCE). In week 7, no dietary influence was observed on AWFI. In week 8 and week 9, CON stimulated lower AWFI compared with diet CM100. Diets had no significant influence on AWG, FCE, and haemo-biochemical parameters of Japanese quail. Adding carbohydrases had no significant effect on internal organs, carcass and meat quality traits of quail. It was therefore concluded that inclusion of exogenous carbohydrases alone did not improve the utilization of a canola meal-based quail diet. However, there is a possibility that utilization of higher canola levels would be enhanced through multienzyme combinations.