~ 1143 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal 2019; 8(4): 1143-1145 ISSN (E): 2277- 7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating: 5.03 TPI 2019; 8(4): 1143-1145 © 2019 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: 16-02-2019 Accepted: 17-03-2019 A Varadharajan Division of Animal Husbandry, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu, India R Gnanasekar Division of Animal Husbandry, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu, India S Kothandaraman Division of Animal Husbandry, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu, India Correspondence A Varadharajan Division of Animal Husbandry, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu, India Studies on feeding value of azolla in quails in relationship to its carcass traits A Varadharajan, R Gnanasekar and S Kothandaraman Abstract An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary incorporation of different levels of Azolla meal (AZM) on the production performance of Japanese quails. One week old 150 quails ( Coturnix coturnix japonica) were randomly divided into 3 groups viz. T1, T2 and T3 with 5 replicates of 10 birds each. T1 served as control (0 % AZM) and T2 and T3 groups were fed with a diet containing 3% and 6% AZM, respectively for a period of 6 weeks. Feed consumption was calculated during the entire trial period. At the end of the trial period, randomly 5 birds from 5 replicates of T1, T2 and T3 were slaughtered to study the carcass characteristics. There was significant difference in 3 groups’ carcass characteristics with respect to giblet, back and wings percentage though other parameters were insignificant. It was concluded that AZM could be incorporated in quails’ diet up to 6% without affecting the feed consumption and carcass traits. More importantly, it doesn’t exhibit any untoward incidence and was considered safe and economical. Keywords: Azolla meal, Japanese quails, carcass traits, dressing percentage Introduction Feeds of plant origin, as the green plants are recognized as excellent sources of protein, fat and pharmacologically active secondary metabolites. Aquatic plants are gaining much interest in food and biomedical research, resulting from its broad range of uses such as human food, animal feed and bio-fertilizers. Among aquatic plants floating fern Azolla (Azolla pinnata) can be used as unconventional high potential feed resource. Azolla is a free floating fresh water fern belonging to the family Azollaceae and order Pteridophyta. It contains almost all essential amino acids, minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, manganese etc. apart from appreciable quantities of vitamin A precursor beta carotene. Azolla have a symbiotic relationship with the nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae. It is this unique symbiotic relationship that makes Azolla, a wonderful “super plant” with high protein content, as it can readily colonize areas of fresh water and grow at great speed doubling its biomass every two to three days. It is also found to contain probiotics and biopolymers (Pillai et al., 2005) [14] . Thus, Azolla appears to be a potential source of nutrients. The bio-composition of Azolla makes it one of the most economic, efficient and sustainable feed substitute for poultry thus incorporation of Azolla as an alternative protein ingredient in quail ration could make quail production economical. The present study was, therefore, conducted to see the effect of inclusion of Azolla meal at different levels on the growth and performance of quails in relationship with its carcass traits. In poultry production, feed cost accounts for nearly 60% of the total cost of production (Shaikh and Zala, 2011) [16] . The shrinking feed resources of the world and their escalating cost has triggered search for cheap unconventional feeds for poultry production. There is a conscientious effort to switch on to non-conventional feed items to slash feed cost in poultry production. Azolla has been established as a potential feed ingredient for livestock and poultry by many researchers (Pillai et al., 2005) [14] . Azolla (Azolla pinnata), an aquatic fern, abundantly available in stagnant water in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, has been recommended for feeding broiler and layer chicken (Basak et al., 2002) [4] . It is very rich in proteins, essential amino acids, vitamins, growth promoter intermediaries and minerals (Pillai et al., 2005; Henry et al., 2017) [14, 9] . Inclusion of azolla in the poultry diet economizes production (Dhumal et al., 2009) [7] but very limited studies have been conducted on evaluating its effects on the carcass traits of Japanese quails. Further, in the recent past, small and marginal poultry farmers of India are more interested in rearing Japanese quails rather than other species due to increasing consumer demand especially in urban areas.