Poultry Byproduct Meal: Influence on Performance and Egg Quality Traits of Layers

This research was conducted to determine the effects of poultry diets containing 0, 2.5, 5 and 7.5% levels of poultry byproducts on layer performance and egg quality. One hundred and twenty eight Hy-Line (W-36) laying hens were randomly assigned to four treatments and four replicates eight layers per replicate. Experiment was 56 day long from 66-74 weeks of age spread over 4 periods; each period was of two weeks. Feed intake (FI), egg production (EP), egg mass (EM), egg weight (EW), feed conversion ratio (FCR), egg shape index (ESI), egg shell thickness (EST), egg shell weight (ESW), Haugh unit (HU) and yolk color score (YCS) were measured. The results indicated that YCS was significantly affected (P< 0.01) by dietary treatments. YCS in control group was lesser than the other groups. FI, EP, EM, EW, FCR, ESI, EST, ESW and HU had no significant differences among the dietary treatments. Results suggested that poultry byproduct meal could be used up to 7.5% in layer diets without detrimental effects on performance and egg quality. © 2010 Friends Science Publishers