Effect of Vegetable Oil Source and L‐Carnitine Supplements on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Blood Biochemical Parameters of Japanese Quails (Coturnix japonica)

An experiment was conducted to study the effects of soybean, linseed and sunflower oil (various sources of fatty acids) with and without L-carnitine supplements (0 and 50 mg kg-1) on performance, blood biochemi-cal parameters and carcass traits of Japanese quail. One hundred and ninety-two of 7-day old female Japanese quail were randomly assigned to 6 dietary treatments with 4 replicates and fed in the duration of 28 days. A 3 × 2 factorial arrangement (three oil sourcs and two levels of L-carnitine) was used in a com-pletely randomized design with 8 birds per cage. Feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG) and feed con-version ratio (FCR) of birds were measured during the experiment. Moreover, 2 birds from each cage (rep-licate) were randomly selected at the end of the experiment and then the concentration of cholesterol, albu-min and total protein of blood sera were measured. Results showed that BWG and FCR were affected by dietary treatments and BWG of quails significantly increased by the addition of L-carnitine to linseed oil treatment (P<0.05). Different types of vegetable oil and L-carnitine supplementation had no significant (P>0.05) effect on liver and gizzard of quails. Linseed and sunflower oil increased heart weight of quail. Addition of L-carnitine to diet, containing sunflower oil reduced the relative weight of liver and heart. Sun-flower oil reduced the concentration of total protein and albumin in blood serum of birds. L-carnitine sup-plement increased the concentration of total protein and globulin in female blood serum. Data of the present experiment showed that source of dietary oil affected the performance of Japanese quail and also use of different plant oil sources with L-carnitine supplementation affected the blood biochemical parameter of female Japanese quail. e