Effects of Different concentration of Copper on Performance, Immunity, Blood biochemical and Carcass traits in Broiler Japanese Quails

Abstract The effects of dietary supplemental copper sources and concentrations on broiler Japanese quail growth performance, immunological response, blood biochemistry and carcass quality were investigated in this study. Two copper sources (copper sulphate - CuS, copper methionine - CuM) were used in this experiment, each at five different dietary dosages of 5, 10, 15, 100, and 150 mg/kg. 280 (10 x 4 x 7) day old quail chicks were randomly assigned to ten feed treatments for a period of up to five weeks. Each treatment had four replications, each with seven chicks. CuM (100 mg Cu/kg diet) supplemented diets had significantly (P < 0.01) higher body weight gain and a better feed conversion ratio (FCR) than CuS supplemented diets, according to the findings. At 150 mg CuM/kg diet, the cell mediated immune response (foot web index to PHAP) was significantly higher (P < 0.01) than at other dietary doses of Cu. With copper sulphate (CuS) supplemented diets, the humoral immunological response (HA titre to SRBC) was significantly (P < 0.01) lower than with copper methionine supplemented diets. At 5, 10, and 15mg Cu/kg diet the humoral immunological response (HA titre to SRBC) was significantly (P < 0.01) lower than at 100 and 150mg Cu/kg diet. Bursa weight was significantly higher (P < 0.01) in the 10 and 15mg Cu/kg meals with copper methionine source than in the 5, 10, 15, and 150 mg Cu/kg diets with copper sulphate supplementation. CuM source resulted in significantly (P < 0.01) larger bursa and spleen weight than CuS source. Serum cholesterol levels were significantly (P < 0.01) lower on the 100 and 150 mg CuM/kg diets compared on the 5,10, and 15mg Cu/kg diets. Various carcass quality parameters including as pre-slaughter live weight, shrinkage loss, blood loss, feather loss, dressed weight, and eviscerated weight were not substantially (P > 0.05) different due to either the main effect or the interaction between copper concentrations and sources. Similarly, the weight of organs such as giblets and liver percent did not alter significantly (P > 0.05) due to either the main effect or the interaction between copper concentrations and sources. At 5 mg Cu/kg diet, there was a significantly higher percent gizzard weight (P0.05) than at other dietary Cu doses. The percent of heart weight recorded at 5mg Cu/kg diet was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than those recorded at other dietary Cu concentrations. Thus it may be concluded that dietary supplementation of copper methionine as a source of Cu @ 100mg Cu/kg diet to broiler Japanese quails was more effective in improving growth performance, immunological response, carcass quality features, and serum cholesterol reduction.