Sunflower cake in the diet of semi heavy weight laying hen

Abstract

This paper describes two experiments testing the effects of rations containing different sunflower meal (SFM) levels on laying hens’ performance and egg quality. In the first experiment a total of 240 animals were divided in groups (n = 6) of 10 hens each, balanced by age and live weight and at random allocated to four isocaloric rations with 0, 7, 14 and 21% of SFM. There was no effect (P> 0.05) of SFM levels on hens’ live weight, feed intake, feed conversion, metatarsus length, triglycerides and plasma cholesterol levels. In the second experiment a total of 192 animals were divided in groups (n = 6) of 8 hens each, balanced by age and live weight and at random allocated to four isocaloric rations with 0, 7, 14 and 21% of SFM. There was no effect (P>0.05) of SFM levels on eggs’ production, specific gravity, percentage of shell and yolk color index. However, eggs of hens fed on 21% of SFM showed reduced (P<0.05) Haugh units compared to eggs of animals fed on rations without SFM. These results indicate that there are no deleterious effects on performance and egg’s quality of lying hens fed on rations containing up to 21% of SFM.

Keywords

• Biodiesel; Body development; Productive performance; Blood parameters; Egg quality; Nutritional quality