Effects of combined use of canola and sunflower meals in quail diet on performance and some carcass quality traits

This study was conducted to determine the effects of using canola meal (cm) and sunflower meal (sm) in combination (cs) in quail diets on performance and some carcass quality traits. a total of 300 three-day-old japanese quails (coturnix coturnix japonica),including both males and females were divided into one control group and four treatment groups containing 60 quails in each. each group was divided into five replicate groups each containing 12 quails. the control group was fed corn-soybean meal based diet without cs. the cs was used at level of 10% (cs10),20% (cs20),30% (cs30),and 40% (cs40) in treatment diets (in each treatment c and s ratio is 1:1). the experimental period was lasted for 5 weeks. the results of the study showed that there were no changes in terms of body weight,body weight gain and feed intake as well as carcass weights and yields,relative weight of liver,heart,spleen,gizzard,proventriculus and abdominal fat in all experimental groups with cs supplementation (p>0.05). feed conversion ratio improved in the cs10 and cs20 groups compared with the control and the other groups (p<0.001). as a result,it may be stated that the combined dietary supplementation of up to 40% of canola-sunflower meal had no any adverse effect on the performance and some carcass quality traits in quails. copyright 2015 zoological society of pakistan.