Supplementation of freeze dried Bacillus subtilis QST 713 on growth performance and carcass characteristics in Japanese quail

A biological study was carried out to investigate the effect of dietary incorporation of Bacillus subtilis QST 713on the performance and carcass characteristics in Japanese quails. Five hundred newly hatched Japanese quail chicks were randomly divided into five treatment groups with four replicates of 25 chicks each per treatment. The chicks were fed with five experimental diets; control diet (®), control+0.010% B. subtilis (T₂), control+0.015% B. subtilis (T₃), control+0.020% B. subtilis (T₄) and control+0.025% B. subtilis (T₅). The experiment was carried out for 5 weeks with standard managemental practices. The body weight, feed consumption and feed efficiency showed significantly (P<0.05) higher values in birds fed with 0.015% (T₂) B. subtilis. Supplementation of probiotic (B. subtilis) significantly (P<0.05) increased eviscerated carcass weight, ready-to-cook weight and liver weight in T₂ treatment group. There was no difference in pre-slaughter weight, weight after bleeding, de feathered weight, gizzard, heart, giblet and abdominal fat weight. It is concluded that supplementation of B. subtilis@ 0.015% resulted in good production performance and carcass yield in Japanese quail.