Egg production performance and egg quality of laying birds fed cassava plant meal based diet

Abstract

The study assessed the efficiency of egg production and the egg quality characteristics of laying birds fed varying levels of cassava plant meal (CPM) in replacement of maize in their diets. One hundred and fifty laying birds (Isa brown strain) of 26 weeks old were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments with 30 birds per treatment. The diets contained 0, 12, 24 and 36 % replacement of maize with CPM. Production performance data were obtained daily. Ten eggs per diet were collected weekly for egg quality analysis. The experiment lasted for 10 weeks. Data were subjected to T–test and one–way analysis of variance using SAS 2009 software. The proximate composition of CPM differs (P<0.05) from maize. The proximate diet composition and efficiency of production differ significantly across the diet. Significant differences (P < 0.05) existed for internal and external egg quality parameters. Complete replacement with CPM improved egg yolk colour by 44.80 %, egg weight (2.59 %), yolk height (8.62 %) and albumen height (8.91 %). It was concluded that 36 % replacement of maize with CPM in laying birds diet gave similar hen day production (69.75 %) compared to complete maize diets while complete replacement improved external and internal egg qualities with (P < 0.05) increase.

Key words: Egg production, cassava plant meal, yolk height