Effect of Levels of Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) on Performance and Blood Biochemical Characteristics in Japanese Quails (Coturnix coturnix)

This experiment was conducted to determine the effects of oyster mushroom on performance and blood biochemical characteristics in Japanese quails (Coturnix Japonica). A total of 240 seven day old mix sexes quail chicks were randomly allocated to four experimental groups. Each treatment consisted of three repli-cate pens with 20 birds. Experimental groups included 0, 0.5, 1, 2% oyster mushroom in quail diet. Each replicate was housed in separate stainless floor pens under controlled temperature and light conditions. On 21st days of age, male and female chicks were separated. Weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were not significantly influenced by the dietary treatments. Total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) significantly decreased (P<0.05) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol significantly increased (P<0.05) by the 2% diet contain mushroom compared to the control, but plasma glucose, uric acid, total protein of quails were not significantly influenced by the dietary treatments. Inclu-sion of 2% mushroom in the diet, positively affected blood biochemical characteristics of quails. Therefore it seems that mushroom may be a beneficial component in quail diet.