Effects of dietary crude protein levels on growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality of squabs and laying performance of breeding pigeons

Objective The goal was to investigate the effects of dietary crude protein levels on growth performance, carcass performance, and meat quality of squabs and laying performance of breeding pigeons.

Method A total of 180 pairs of healthy breeding pigeons with similar body weight and reproduction performance were randomly divided into five groups.Each group had six replicates, and each replicate had six pairs of breeding pigeons.Five groups were fed with diets of 15%, 16%, 17%, 18% and 19% crude protein respectively.The whole feeding experiment lasted for one reproduction cycle including the egg-laying, egg hatching, feeding and egg-laying again periods.

Result Compared with other groups, the squabs in the group fed with 18% crude protein had the highest average daily gain during 1-14 days and 1-21 days.Average daily gain of squabs in the 18% crude protein group was 7.3% (P < 0.05) and 3.2% (P>0.05) higher compared with the 15% crude protein group during 1-14 days and 1-28 days respectively.The average feed intake and feed/gain ratio of breeding pigeons were not significantly different among groups.Compared with the 15% crude protein group, the eviscerated carcass rate and the percentage of breast muscle of squabs in the 18% crude protein group were increased by 2.7% and 6.4% (P < 0.05), respectively, and the drip loss and shear force of squab breast muscle in the 18% crude protein group were decreased by 10.5% and 11.4% (P < 0.05), respectively.Compared with other groups, laying intervals of the 18% and 19% crude protein groups were decreased by one day (P>0.05).During the feeding period of the breeding pigeons and within one week after the squabs went on the market, the 18% crude protein group had the highest percentage of laying breeding pigeons (P < 0.05).

Conclusion Based on the comparisons and the quadratic regression analysis, the 18% crude protein group have good growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality of squabs and laying performance of breeding pigeons.The appropriate crude protein level for breeding pigeons during hatching and feeding period is 18%.