Determination of the Optimal Dietary Amino Acid Ratio Based on Egg Quality for Japanese Quail Breeder

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Line 71-80: It is necessary to specify the stocking density.

Lines 88-89: Which criterion did you use to determine nutrient requirements?

Lines 113-114: There is an inconsistency between these two sentences. “The daily amount of feed provided was 113 24 g per bird. Feed and water was provided ad libitum.”

Lines 116-120: Why were these factors measured if the quality of eggs is the subject of the research specifically?

Lines 126-127: Height is what characteristics?

Line 128-132: The Haugh unit was first calculated by Haugh in 1937. Please replace "reference, 32" with "Haugh 1937".

Lines 133-140: If you could include a reference for the yolk index, it would be helpful (Funk, 1948). Replace “Caner and Yüceer, 2015” with “Funk, 1948”

Lines 136-137: Egg albumen and yolk pH needs to be assessed independently. The incorrect method for determining pH is mixing.

How many eggs were analyzed from each group to determine their quality characteristics. The obtained eggs were tested either immediately or after one day. Please provide more details.

The decimal separator of the numbers in Table 4 and Table 5 has been used both dot and comma. According to the P value given for the FCR in Table 4, you should have accepted the null hypothesis, but you made a Type I error. If you give the results of the multiple range test as "*", the reader will not understand anything. Make sure to separate the group meanss from each other with letters.

Line 174: replece “(P > 0.05; Table 4)” with “(P < 0.05; Table 4)”

Line:189: please check P value “ ESW (P = 0.0908).”

Author Response

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The content of the paper “Determination of the optimal dietary amino acid ratio based on egg quality for Japanese quail breeder” generally correspond to a paper title.  The paper structure is appropriate – specific for this kind of papers and consists of 4 chapters plus abstract and references. The order and content of chapters were arranged correctly. Definitely, the article must be supplemented with conclusions or at least summary because with so many variables and so many dietary treatments, the interpretation of the results obtained is a very tedious process.

The biological value of dietary protein including  the amounts of indispensable amino acids, their proportions, digestibility as well is a crucial factor limiting the efficiency of monogastric animals production, including Japanese quails. The Authors have taken the attempt to develop the pattern of ideal protein for Japanese quails, however it’s quite complicated issue taking into consideration interrelationships among individual indispensable amino acids. The authors in the paper made analysis of recent literature reports on amino acids requirements and metabolism in birds as well as methods of determination of essential amino acids intake. In introduction part I suggest to rewrite the sentence “Among the nutrients for egg formation, amino acids are essential for egg formation”. Maybe you can consider to replace it with “Among the nutrients, amino acids are essential for egg formation” (Line 29-30)

The design of the experiment is constructed well. However, I couldn’t find the explanation of various levels of starch, sugar and cellulose in various treatments. I recommend to add to the information about nutritional value of  various diets, information about crude fat, crude fibre, starch, and NFE since their content in diets also could affect the individual EAA metabolisms. There is a need to add data about the initial and final body weight of birds. The Authors are also requested to give information about the analytical methods and equipment used for nutrients, especially amino acids determination. The results, having regard the number of treatments, are described quite clearly in well-constructed tables. The discussion section is very extensive and is described very skillfully.

Summarizing, the paper is a comprehensive and valuable paper but some crucial data need to be provided (conclusions or summary, additional data related to nutritional value of dietary treatments).

 

 

Author Response

We thank you for all suggestions made about our manuscript. All suggestions were met and highlighted in blue.

-          We have added the information according to reviewer suggestion (Line 29).

-          We have added a conclusion according to reviewer suggestion (Line 355).

-          We agree with your suggestion and have added the nutritional value to Table 3 to make it easier for the reader to understand. Crude fiber, Crude fat, starch, and ENF values were added to the table 3 according to reviewer suggestion (line 6).

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

Even if you have a study on the subject, it may not be appropriate to cite so much yourself.

Best regards,