Table 3.

Effect of immersion Japanese quail eggs with different levels of riboflavin on carcass characteristics from 6 wk of age.

Items	Immersion treatment group				SEM	P- value1
	Control	3g	4g	5g		T	L	Q
Body weight before slaughter	178.00	169.33	183.33	185.33	2.11	0.067	0.070	0.052
Body weight after slaughter	173.66	164.66	180.33	181.00	2.98	0.097	0.76	0.092
Blood weight	4.33ab	4.66a	3.00c	4.33ab	1.67	0.043	0.040	0.047
Body weight after feathers removed	157.86	157.60	164.80	169.30	3.88	0.074	0.62	0.051
Feathers weight	15.80a	7.06c	15.53a	11.70b	5.16	0.034	0.037	0.029
Head weight	7.80	8.63	8.50	8.836	2.44	0.076	0.092	0.094
Non-giblets weight	6.36	5.90	7.60	6.86	2.97	0.063	0.071	0.67
Giblets weight	4.83	4.60	5.23	4.53	1.83	0.077	0.084	0.031
Liver weight	3.30	3.10	3.60	3.23	0.95	0.068	0.071	0.066
Heart weight	1.53	1.50	1.63	1.30	0.87	0.142	0.133	0.099
Testes weight	1.639b	3.60a	1.06b	1.16b	1.05	0.033	0.029	0.047
Leg weight	4.30	4.13	4.03	3.76	2.11	0.178	0.135	0.175
Gizzard weight	3.83	2.93	3.53	3.40	1.86	0.214	0.201	0.174
Empty body weight	131.86	125.80	138.33	121.50	2.35	0.068	0.047	0.038
Carcass weight %	74.04ab	74.280ab	75.52a	65.54c	2.74	0.014	0.046	0.043
Dressing weight %	76.76ab	77.01ab	78.26a	67.98c	2.58	0.003	0.049	0.035

^a,bMeans bearing different letters in the same row differ significantly (P < 0.05, 0.001).

¹T, overall effects of treatments; L, linear effects of increasing riboflavin levels of quails; Q, quadratic effects of increasing riboflavin levels of quails.

Hot carcass % = [Empty body weight including head wt. / Pre-slaughter weight] × 100.

Dressed % = [Hot carcass wt. + Giblets weight (liver+ heart weights)] / Pre-slaughter weight × 100.