The Effect of Feeding Graded Level of Dried Cafeteria Food Leftover on Egg Production and Quality of White Leghorn Chickens

Abstract

A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding graded level of dried cafeteria food leftover on egg production and quality of white leghorn chickens on feed intake, egg production and quality, feed conversion ratio, fertility and hatchability of white leghorn (WL) layer at Haramaya University Poultry Farm for 90 days. Two hundred twenty five WL layer at five months of age with average initial body weight of 1029.04± 18.7314 g (mean ± S.D) were randomly distributed to five treatments, each replicated three time with thirteenlayers and two cockerels per replicate in CRD and kept on a deep litter system. The treatment rations were formulated to contain dried cafeteria food left over in layers ration at a proportion of 0 (T1), 15 (T2), 30 (T3), 45 (T4) and 60 (T5) percent of the total ration. Daily dry matter intake of birds fed diet consisting T1 (93.1±0.16g) was significantly (P<0.05) lower than T2 (94.1 ± 0.16), T3 (94.1±0.16g), T4 (94.4±0.16g) and T5 (94.4±0.16g). The results of the experiment showed that there were no significant differences (P>0.05) among treatments in hen-day egg production (34.5, 34.6, 36.0, 36.4 and 37.2 (SEM= 0.88), for T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5, respectively. There is also no significant difference (p<0.05) among albumen weight, shell weight, yolk index, yolk ratio, yolk diameter, yolk height, albumen ratio, albumen height and Haugh unit. Roche color fan reading revealed that eggs from hens fed T1 diet has significantly (P<0.01) lower yolk color (3.724±0.2237) than T2 (5.41± 0.22), T3(5.72 ±0.22), T4 (4.99 ±0.22) and T5 (5.74 ±0.22).  Birds fed control diet (T1) has lower yolk weight (13.99± 0.15) than T2 (14.67±0.157),T4 (14.68±0.15), and T5 (14.76± 0.15) respectively, but slightly higher than T3 (13.59± 0.15). Shell thickness is lower (p<0.05) for T1 (0.299 ± 0.005) and T5(0.290± 0.005) than T2 (0.325± 0.005), T3 (0.327± 0.005) and T4 (0.319± 0.005) respectively. The logistic regression results of fertility and hatchability did not show any significant (p< 0.05) difference among treatments.Increasing level of dried cafeteria food leftover inclusion in layers ration hasno negative impact on production performance, quality andconcluded that dried cafeteria food left over can be included in poultry ration up to 60%.

Key words:Dried cafeteria food leftover, Egg quality, Fertility, Hatchability