Research Information System
JOURNAL OF THE HELLENIC VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY, vol.74, no.2, pp.5709-5716, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Shiitake mushroom (Lentinus edodes) supple-mentation into quail diets on live weight, live weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, blood serum biochemical parameters (total cholesterol, total protein, triglyceride, glucose) and intestine bacteria populations. A total of 220 Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix Japonica) were used in present experiments. Quail were separated into 4 groups (one control and three treatment groups). Control group was fed with a basic ration and treatments groups were fed with 0.5, 1 and 2% shiitake mushroom-supplemented diets. Shiitake mushroom supplementations signifi- cantly influenced live weights (P<0.01), live weight gains (P<0.05), feed conversion ratios (P<0.05) and blood serum glucose levels (P<0.01).Differences in feed consumptions, blood serum total protein, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels and intestine bacteria populations of the treatment groups were not found to be significant (P>0.05). A linear decrease was seen in live weights with increasing Shiitake mushroom supplementation ratios into quail diets. Similarly, live weight gains linearly decreased with increasing doses of Shiitake mushroom. Therefore, feed conversion ratios were negatively influenced by Shiitake mushroom supplementation and feed consumptions of quail were not affected. Present findings revealed that increasing Shiitake mushroom supplementation ratios into quail diets worsened growth performance.