Incorporation of Olive Oil in Japanese Quail Feed: Effect on Zoo-technical Performance, Biochemical and Carcass Characteristics

The present work aims to study the influence of the incorporation of olive oil in the diet of quails at different proportions: control C (0%), E1 (2%) and E2 (4%). 360 quails of one day of age were randomly divided into three groups of 120 individuals and reared on the ground for five weeks. The weight of the subjects and the feed intake were recorded weekly. The results showed that quails-fed olive oil showed better zootechnical performances (average live weight, average daily gain and feed conversion ratio) than the control group, with an even better effect in the E2 group. The average live weights at the fifth week were 184.1g for the E2 group; 181.6g for the E1 group versus 178.1g for the C group, corresponding to average weight gains of 5.1; 5.0 and 4.9 respectively. The feed conversion ratio seems to be positively influenced by the incorporation of olive oil since it goes from 5.04 in group C to 4.51 in group E2 and 4.65 in group E1. Moreover, the incorporation of olive oil did not modify the blood parameters of the animals nor the weight of the carcasses and organs, except for the weight of the heart, the quail of group E2 being the heaviest (P=0.001). Therefore, olive oil may represent an interesting alternative for improving the feed efficiency of Japanese quails. However, further studies are needed to estimate the economic efficiency of this strategy as well as the optimum rate of olive oil incorporation.