UTILIZATION OF ATRIPLEX LEAVES MEAL AS A NONTRADITIONAL FEEDSTUFF BY LOCAL LAYING HENS UNDER DESERT CONDITIONS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Anim. and Poul. Nutrition Dept., Desert Rese. Center, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

A total number of 180 Sina laying hens 22 week of age were used in an
experiment lasted 34 weeks. The experiment aimed to study the utilization of feeding
laying hens different levels of Atriplex nummularia leaves meal (ALM) on the productive
performance, egg quality and economical efficiency under desert conditions. Experimental
hens were divided randomly into four equal experimental treatments (45 in each treatment)
and randomly divided into three equal replicates (15 hens each).The first group was fed the
basal diet as a control (0 % ALM), while the other three treatments were fed diets
containing either 4,8 or 12 % ALM, respectively. Experimental diets were formulated to be
iso-caloric (2700 kcal ME /kg diet) and iso-nitrogenous (16% crude protein), iso-fibrous
(X 3.15%) and were formulated in granular form.
The Atriplex nummularia leaves meal contained 3277 kcal gross energy / kg DM,
1863 kcal apparent metabolizable energy / kg DM and Total tannins as 4.2 mg/100g DM.
It is worth noting that feed intake decreased (P< 0.05) with increasing ALM levels,
while feed conversion ratio (g feed /g egg mass) revealed a significant (P<0.05) among
ALM levels. Egg weight, egg production and egg mass showed significant (P<0.05)
differences among the experimental treatments.
Egg yolk, egg shell%, shape index, yolk index % did not significantly differ, while,
shell thickness (mm) values were (P< 0.05) increased by increasing ALM level in the diet
Increasing ALM level in the diets significantly decreased (P<0.05) digestion
coefficients of OM, CP, CF, NFE% and nutritive values expressed as DCP, TDN % and
ME(kcal/kg) up to 12%. However, the different levels of ALM significantly increased
(P<0.05) digestion coefficient of EE.

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