COMPARISON ON THE EFFECTS OF SEVERAL LEAF MEAL KINDS INCLUDED IN DIETS OF LAYING HENS ON EGG YIELD AND QUALITY

Tu Quang Trung, Mai Anh Khoa, Tu Quang Hien, Tu Trung Kien, Tran Thi Hoan

Abstract: The aim of this experiment is to determine the way to include some kinds of leaf meals in the diets of Luong Phuong parent stock and the effect it will have on egg yield and quality of laying hens. Cassava, leucaena leaf meals (CLM, LLM) and stylosanthes grass meal (SGM) were used in this trial. The experiment employed 630 laying hens, 84 roosters, allocated into 7 groups; each group consisted of 30 hens and 4 roosters in triple replication. The experimental groups were named as: The Control (CG), Experiment 1A, 2A, 3A and 1B, 2B, 3B. The diet offered to the Control was called the basal diet (BD) without inclusion of leaf meals; its ME and CP content complied with requirement standards for colored feather production parent stocks. The diets offered in the A groups were formulated with the edition of 6% CLM (for 1A), 6% LLM (for 2A) and 6% SGM (for 3A) with correction for ME and CP content which was similar to that of the BD (the first method). The diets provided for the B experimental groups were prepared by replacing 6% BD with CLM (for 1B), with LLM (for 2B) and with SGM (for 3B). This replacement without correction of ME and CP content met the requirement standard (the second method). The results showed that there was similar effect of CLM and LLM on egg yield and quality while the effect of SGM was significantly lowered. The effect of the first method of leaf meal inclusion into the diets was better than that of the second method. However, CLM and LLM showed good results in both methods, whereas SGM only had good result in the first method.

Keywords: cassava; leucaena leaf meals; method of inclusion; stylosanthes

Date published: 2019-04-09