Comparative bioavailability of minerals in soybean meal and fish meal for adult cockerels and Japanese quails

About 18 adult cockerels and 180 adult Japanese quails were used to determine the bioavailability of minerals viz., calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese and copper from soybean and fishmeal. The soybean meal was offered to cockerels as per Farrell's “Rapid ME” method. The fishmeal was fed by crop intubation method. On the other hand, both the feedstuffs were fed to quails as per Farrell's technique. In soybean meal, the availability of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and manganese were higher (P<0.01) for cockerels as compared to quails. No significant species difference was observed in copper availability. The Ca, P and Mg availability values of fish meal were higher (P<0.001) in quails. On the contrary, the Cu and Mn availabilities were higher in cockerels. Overall, the bioavailability of minerals was markedly higher from fish meal as compared to soybean meal irrespective of species. The present observations revealed that the Japanese quails were significantly better in assimilating minerals from fish meal as compared to cockerels with the exception of copper and manganese. Hence, it may be concluded that the mineral bioavailability values determined with cockerels does not support its application in quail feed formulations.