Influence of dietary organic and inorganic chromium on meat characteristics of Japanese quails

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the influence of dietary organic and inorganic chromium on meat characteristics of Japanese quails for a period of six weeks with seven hundred day-old quail chicks. These quail chicks were randomly grouped into seven treatment groups with four replicates consisting of 25 quail chicks in each replicate. They were provided with feed supplemented with inorganic chromium and organic chromium in the form of chromium with azolla and chromium with yeast at 500 and 1000 ppb levels and a control diet without chromium supplement from day old to six weeks of age. Quails which received organic chromium at 1000 ppb level had increased New York dressed weight (215.25±3.60g) and eviscerated weight (171.19±3.50g). The difference in weight of heart, gizzard, giblet, back and breast muscles were not significant between treatment groups. Whereas, combined weight of thigh and drumstick (49.84±1.11g) was higher in 1000 ppb of chromium with yeast supplemented group than control. Organic chromium supplementation showed an improvement in the carcass yield in Japanese quails without much affecting the relative weights of visceral organs.