Utilisation of flavour treated blood-rumen content mixture in the diets of laying hens

Abstract

One hundred and ninety-two Harco laying hens were employed in a feeding trial lasting 42 days, to determine the optimum inclusion level (8 or 12%) of Blood-Rumen content mixture (BRC) treated with four different flavouring agents i.e. meat broth, curry and vanilla. The interaction of the BRC and flavouring agents resulted in better egg weight. The 12% inclusion of BRC in the diet resulted in higher (P<0.05) yolk colour. The body weight gain and the shell thickness also tended to increase with the increase in the BRC level of the diets. The laying trial showed that the 8% BRC diets resulted in a significantly (P<0.05) higher Hen Day production percentage (HPD) than the 12% BRC diets (82.01 vs 77.73). Curry flavouring agent gave the best HDP (P<0. 05).

Keywords: Blood-rumen content, flavouring agents, hen day production