PERFORMANCE OF JAPANESE QUAIL IN FLOOR AND CAGE SYSTEM IN SYLHET

Abstract

A total number of 66 day old Japanese quail chicks were reared on floor and in cage rearing system for a period of 5 weeks to know the effect of rearing system on growth and carcass characteristics. At the age of 35 days, average body weight and feed intake were 102.15 and 320.71 g/quail for cage rearing system and 78.41 and 241.89g/quail for floor rearing system respectively. FCR were 3.89 and 4.10 for cage rearing system and floor rearing system respectively, at the age of 35 days. Body weight, feed intake and FCR were significantly different between cage and floor rearing system. At the age of 21 and 35 days survivability were 72.72 and 72.72 % for cage rearing system and 63.63 and 60.60 % for floor rearing system respectively. There was higher survivability in cage than floor rearing system in 35 days. In case of meat yield characteristics, average weight of breast, thigh, wing, drum stick were 20.92, 7.37, 5.42 and 5.72 g for cage and 20.84, 7.35, 5.39 and 5.63 g for floor respectively. There were no significant difference among average weight of breast, thigh and drum stick between two rearing system and in case of sex. But in case of average wing weight there were significant difference among sex. It may be concluded from this study that cage reared quails showed better performance compared to littered floor rearing system in Sylhet district.