Raja Kishore, K (MAJOR)Srinivas Kumar, DNarendranath, DSUCHARITHA KATHYAYINI, CHINDUKURI2022-09-152022-09-152022-02https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810187702THESESThe present investigation is carried out to study the effect of inclusion of cashew nut kernel meal at different levels on growth performance, serum biochemical profile, digestibility of nutrients, carcass characteristics and cost economics in Japanese quails. One hundred and fifty, day old quail chicks were distributed randomly to five dietary groups each with three replicates of ten chicks and were offered experimental diets to meet the nutrient requirements (NRC, 1994). During the experiment, cashew nut kernel meal was ground and was included at 0% (T1; Control), 5% (T2), 10% (T3), 15% (T4) and 20% (T5) levels in iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous broiler quail diets. Results indicated that inclusion of cashew nut kernel meal from 0 to 20% level in the diet had no effect (P>0.05) on feed intake, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio in quails as compared to the control. Whereas, the study indicated that the body weight gain (P0.05) on serum albumin, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, AST, ALT, urea, serum calcium and phosphorous content as compared to the control. Whereas, the glucose, creatinine levels (P0.05) linearly from T1 to T5 with increased level of inclusion of cashew nut kernel meal from 0 to 20% in the diet as compared to the control. Further, inclusion of cashew nut kernel meal up to 20% level in the diet had no effect (P>0.05) on carcass yield, dressing percentage, ready to cook yield and per cent weight of heart, liver, gizzard and giblet as compared to the control. The feed cost ( )/kg gain decreased by 1.30 in T2, 3.67 in T3, 7.21 in T4 and 11.5 in T5 groups of quails fed diets containing cashew nut kernel meal at 5, 10, 15 and 20% levels in the diet as compared to the control. Thus, it is concluded that inclusion of cashew nut kernel meal up to 20% level in the diet without any adverse effect on production performance of Japanese quail.EnglishThesis