Guava Extract As An Antioxidant Additive In Diets Of Japanese Breeder Quails To Mitigate The Effect Of Egg Storage Time On Newly Hatched Quality

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of guava extract in the diets of quail breeders and storage time on the quality of newly hatched quails. Four hundred and thirty-two eggs were randomly distributed in a 4 x 2 factorial scheme, with the main factors being the dietary levels of guava extract (0.0, 3.0, 6.0, and 9.0 g kg(-1)) and the storage time (three and nine days), totaling eight treatments and 54 replicates. The egg was considered the replicate. The eggs were produced by Japanese quail breeders at 28 weeks of age that had been fed the experimental diets. The quail breeders were randomly distributed according to body weight and laying percentage into 24 cages, with 12 females and four males per cage, totaling 288 female and 96 male Japanese quail breeders. The parameters of incubation, embryodiagnosis, intestinal development and quality of newly hatched quail were assessed. The eggs were incubated in a single-stage incubator at a temperature of 37.5 degrees C and 65 % humidity. The incubation period lasted 432 h. There was no significant interaction between the factors on incubation parameters. The incubation parameters, the embryodiagnosis, and the newly hatched quality were not affected by dietary guava extract. The quail produced by eggs stored for nine days presented lower body weight and body length at hatch. Dietary levels of 6.0 and 9.0 g kg(-1) resulted in similar intestinal development of quail produced from eggs stored for nine or three days. We concluded that the use of 6.0 g kg(-1) extract guava in the diets of quail breeders is sufficient to improve the intestinal development of newly hatched quail when eggs are stored for nine days.