Effect of feeding diets containing sesame oil or seeds on productive and reproductive performance of laying quail

This experiment was undertaken to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with sesame oil and seeds on productive and reproductive efficiency of Japanese quail.Totally 120 female and 40 male Japanese quails, 10 weeks old were randomly divided into 5 treatments containing 24 females and 8 males each. Each treatment group contained 4 replicates, of 6 females and 2 males. Birds were fed for 12 weeks commercial diet containing 0% sesame oil or seeds (control group; C); 0.5% sesame oil (T1); 1% sesame oil (T2), 1% sesame seeds (T3); and 2% sesame seeds (T4). Parameters included in this experiment were body weight, feed consumption, egg weight, hen – day egg production, cumulative egg number, egg mass, feed conversion ratio, fertility, hatchability of eggs set, hatchability of fertile egg, and embryonic mortality. The data revealed that, birds fed diets containing sesame oil or seeds (T1; T2;T3; and T4) recorded the best results as concerns total means of egg weight, hen – day egg production, cumulative egg number, egg mass, feed conversion ratio, fertility, hatchability of total eggs, hatchability of fertile eggs, and embryonic livability when compared with control group (C). Whereas, there were no significant differences between treatment groups (C; T1; T2; T3; and T4) in relation to body weight and feed consumption. From this experiment it is concluded that dietary substitution of sesame oil and seeds resulted in significant improvement in productive and reproductive traits of Japanese quail. Thus, sesame oil or seeds can be used in laying quail diets at the levels mentioned above as an important tool for enhancing productive and reproductive performance of Japanese quail