Effect of Replacing Corn in Layer Quail Diets with Rice Husk Distillers’ Dried Grain after Co-Culture Fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida tropicalis on the Production Performance and Quality of Eggs

Abstract

Background and Objective: The availability of ingredients as energy-rich feed sources, especially corn, is one of the obstacles in developing quail farms. The search for corn substitutes in feed formulations has received high attention from animal nutrition investigators. The present study aimed to explore the effect of rice husk distillers’ dried grain (DDG) from a fermented co-culture with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida tropicalis on the production performance and quality of quail eggs. Materials and Methods: The co-culture liquid fermentation of S. cerevisiae with C. tropicalis was carried out for 7 days using hydrolysed rice husk as feedstock at a temperature of 28-30°C and a relative humidity of 60-70% in the dark. A complete randomized block design was used to determine the effect of 6 proportions of rice husk DDG, namely, 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%, in quail feed formulations, each of which was repeated 5 times. After acclimatization and adaptation for 2 weeks, a total of 300 quails aged 35 days were divided into 6 groups and reared for 10 weeks in pens containing 10 birds each. Observations on mortality, body weight, feed consumption and egg production performance of the quails were carried out every week from the age of 49-104 days. Observations of the internal quality and nutritional composition of eggs was carried out at the age of 104 days. Results: The results of this study indicate that the proportion of rice husk DDG up to 50% in feed formulation has no significant (p>0.05) effect on the mortality, body weight, feed consumption, egg weight, albumen and yolk indexes, Haugh unit, protein content, total fat, carbohydrate content and quail egg total cholesterol but the amount of eggs, daily egg production, egg mass production and yolk egg colour from quails fed with 40-50% rice husk DDG was significantly (p<0.05) lower than those observed for quails fed with 0-30% rice husk DDG. The low energy content and high crude fibre in rice husk DDG are the main constraints for higher utilization of rice husk DDG or for replacing all corn in quail diets. Conclusion: This study concluded that rice husk DDG from a fermented co-culture with S. cerevisiae and C. tropicalis can be used to replace as much as 30% or 40-50% of corn in quail diets.