¹Department of Animal Nutrition and Nutritional Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Dicle University, TR-21280 Diyarbakır - TURKEY
²Department of Animal Husbandry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Dicle University, TR-21280 Diyarbakir - TURKEY
³Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Fisheries, Inonu University, TR-44280 Malatya - TURKEY
⁴Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Balikesir University, TR-10145 Balikesir - TURKEY DOI : 10.9775/kvfd.2017.17608 This study was conducted to determine the effects of supplementary liquid-colostrum (LiqC) on growth performance, carcass yield, ceruloplasmin, sialic acid, and antioxidant levels in growing quails. In this study, a total of 90 ten-days-old mixed-sexed Japanese quail chicks were used. Quails were divided randomly into 3 groups. Chicks were fed one of three diets: basal diet or basal diet supplemented with 2% or 4% liquid colostrum. Birds were exposed to a 14L:10D illumination cycle for 32 (days of 10-42) days. When the effects of dietary liquid colostrum supplementation on performance were examined, values of final body weight, live weight gain, cumulative feed intake, feed efficiency, cold carcass weight and cold carcass yield in quails were higher in the trial groups compared to control group (P<0.05); but organ weights were not affected (P>0.05). Levels of liver malondialdehyde (MDA), ceruloplasmin, and sialic acid were lower, but levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) were higher in trial groups (P<0.05), and there was no effect on total antioxidant status (TAS) levels (P>0.05). Serum MDA levels were lower and SOD levels were higher in liquid colostrum supplemented groups (P<0.05), although a numerical increase was found in TAS levels, no statistically important difference was found in trial groups. In conclusion, the oxidative, transport and slaughter stresses can be attenuated by liquid colostrum supplementation at 4% of diets in quail. Keywords : Colostrums, Growth performance, Ceruloplasmin, Sialic acid, Quail