Nutrient digestibility and egg production of laying hens fed graded levels of biodegraded palm kernel meal
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Date
2005-05-07
Authors
Aderolu, A. Z.
Iyayi, E. A.
Onilude, A. A.
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Ghana Journal of Agriculture Science
Abstract
A 20-week feeding trial involving 72 Isa brown-laying birds, in a completely randomized design, evaluated the
nutrient digestibility and egg production of layers fed diets containing biodegraded palm kernel meal (PKM) at dietary levels of 20 per cent undegraded and 20, 30 and 40 per cent biodegraded PKM, respectively.
Biodegradation slightly improved proximate and detergent fibre components compared to the undegraded
sample. Among the fibre fractions, hemicellulose was most degraded, whereas acid detergent lignin was least.
Proximate component digestibility was similar among the diets except at 40 per cent levels. With the detergent
fibre component, increasing the level of the biodegraded PKM caused a significant difference (P<0.05) in fibre
component digestibility. Increase in the quantity of biodegraded PKM resulted in significant differences in
the values determined for feed intake, hen-day production, and average egg weight; but for egg length, yolk index,
egg/yolk ratio and egg shell thickness, there was no significant difference. Despite the significantly lower hen-day production of Diet 3, the feed cost per egg produced was similar to the value determined for birds on Diet 1. It could, therefore, be concluded that when prices for soybean meal and maize are high , up to 30 per cent PKM could be used in layers’ diets.
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Citation
Aderolu, A. Z., Iyayi, E. A. and Onilude, A. A. (2006). Nutrient Digestibility and Egg Production of Laying Hens Fed Graded Levels of Biodegraded Palm Kernel Meal (PKM). Ghana Journal of Agriculture Science, Vol.39(2) 139-146.