Dietary inclusion of raw faba bean instead of soybean meal and enzyme supplementation in laying hens: Effect on performance and egg quality

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with 160 Hisex Brown laying hens to evaluate the effect of different inclusion levels of faba bean (FB) and enzyme supplementation on productive performance and egg quality parameters. The experimental diets consisted of five levels of FB: 0% (control), 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, substituting soybean meal (SBM), and two levels of enzyme supplementation (0 or 250 mg/kg). Each dietary treatment was assigned to four replicate groups and the experiment lasted 22 weeks. A positive relationship (P 0.05). The main effect of FB levels replacing for SBM affected (P < 0.05) yolk and shell percentages, yolk index, yolk to albumen ratio, shell thickness and egg shape index. It can be concluded that FB and enzyme supplementation could be included in hens diet at less than 50% instead of SBM to support egg productive performance, however higher raw FB levels negatively affected egg production indices and quality.

Keywords

• Faba bean
• Enzyme
• Performance
• Egg quality
• Layer