Diet composition and cholesteremia in Japanese quail.

Male, Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) were given ad libitum access to one of four diets: a corn-soybean meal control, control plus 1% cholesterol, a glucose-soybean meal with 10% fat plus 1% cholesterol (inducer) or inducer minus 1% cholesterol for an initial 12 weeks beginning at 22 weeks of age. Serum and liver cholesterol concentrations of quail fed the 1% cholesterol supplemented diets averaged respectively, 5.3 and 10.3 times higher than those from quail fed the corresponding diets without cholesterol. There were no significant differences in serum and liver cholesterol concentrations between groups of quail fed control diet versus inducer minus 1% cholesterol diet or between quail fed inducer diet versus control plus 1% cholesterol diet. During a second 12-week period, the quail previously fed the diets containing cholesterol were given the respective control diets. The serum and liver cholesterol concentrations returned to values comparable to those of quail fed the corresponding diets without cholesterol throughout the experiment.