Abstract
Distilled fatty adds (DFA) are by-products of edible oil refining and may be used in animal nutrition. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of DFA and vitamin E (VE) and/or selenium (Se) on digestibility, performance, and meat quality of male Japanese quails. Seven hundred and twenty male quails were used in a completely randomized design in a 3x2x2 factorial arrangement, totaling 12 treatments and four replicates with 15 birds each. Treatments consisted of three DFA levels (0%, 3%, and 6%), two VE levels (0 and 50 ppm) and two Se levels (0 and 0.2 ppm). Six birds per treatment were slaughtered for carcass measurements. The inclusion of VE in diets with 3% DFA improved the dry matter use, while inclusion of VE and Se without DFA increased crude protein and ether extract use. Inclusion of DFA or Se resulted in the best feed:gain ratio. Quails fed diets without DFA, VE, and Se showed a higher feed intake compared with the other treatments. In turn, inclusion of Se and VE improved (P<0.05) contents of moisture and crude protein in the meat. Tenderness was increased (P<0.05) due to the VE inclusion in the diets. It was concluded that VE and organic Se may be included in diets containing up to 6% of DFA for male Japanese quails in view of the resulting improvement in nutrient use, productive performance and meat quality.