Pasta wastes, as substitute for corn, in the laying Japanese quails diet: Effects on production performance, egg quality and blood biochemistry.

Background: Animal food shortage and finding efficient ways to produce poultry products are getting more and more important issues in the world.

Objectives: This study was aimed to determine the effect of replacing corn with pasta wastes (0%, 50% and 100%) in the diet on production performance, some blood variables and the egg quality traits of laying quails.

Methods: A total of 240 laying quails were allocated into 3 experimental groups with 8 replicates for 8 weeks. Egg production percentage, egg mass, feed intake and also mortality rate and percentage of abnormal eggs, egg quality traits and blood variables were evaluated.

Results: None of the pasta wastes inclusion had significant effect on egg mass, abnormal egg percentage, mortality rate, yolk diameter, yolk weight, albumen height, yolk index, shell weight percentage, egg shape index and blood parameters (except for triglycerides). Replacing 100% corn with pasta by-product reduced feed conversion ratio and increased egg weight values. Replacing 100% corn by pasta wastes significantly increased the albumen weight, shell weight and also egg length and width and decreased the Haugh unit. Replacing 50% and 100% corn had a significant increase in yolk height, egg surface area and significantly decreased shell thickness and yolk colour. Overall, 100% replacement of corn by pasta by-product increased blood triglycerides compared to the 50% group.

Conclusions: Based on the result of current experiment, total replacement of corn with pasta wastes could increase the egg weight and also improve feed conversion ratio in the laying quail diets.