Effects of feeding sugar beet pulp and Avizyme supplementation on performance, egg quality, nutrient digestion and nitrogen balance of laying Japanese quail

The major goals of this study were to determine the impact of sugar beet pulp (SBP) levels and Avizyme (R) 1500 (xylanase, protease and amylase) enzyme addition on productive and reproductive performance as well as egg quality, apparent digestibility of nutrients and nitrogen (N) balance in laying Japanese quail between 12 and 20 weeks of age. The experimental design consisted of a 3 x 3 factorial arrangement with three levels of SBP (0, 20 and 40 g kg(-1) diet) and three concentrations of Avizyme (0, 1 and 2 g kg(-1) diet). There were no differences in feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, egg number, egg weight nor egg mass caused by the treatment. Final body weight was significantly (P <= 0.01) decreased by increasing SBP levels. Increasing SBP level from 20 to 40 g kg(-1) in the diet of laying quails led to significant reduction in fertility percentage by 2.67 and 7.01 and 4.60% during periods 12-16, 16-20 and 12-20 weeks of age, respectively. Hatchability percentages (from fertile eggs) elevated gradually with decreasing SBP levels in the diets during the whole period. Different levels of SBP and Avizyme, or their interaction, insignificantly affected the external and internal egg quality of the laying quails during the overall experimental period (12-20 weeks of age). Meanwhile, the different levels of SBP had a significant effect on all the digestion coefficients of the nutrients except for the N digestibility. The N consumption (g d(-1)), N in egg (g d(-1)), N excretion (g d(-1)), N faecal, N intake and N retention were not significantly affected neither by SBP inclusion nor by Avizyme supplementation. The overall results indicated that inclusion of SBP and Avizyme in quail diets did not affect productive performance, egg quality criteria and nitrogen balance but reproductive parameters and digestibility of the nutrient statistically decreased with increasing SBP up to 40 g kg(-1) diet throughout the overall period (12-20 weeks of age).