Abstract
With the objective to establish the best metabolizable energy (ME) intake for layers, and the best dietary vegetable oil addition level to optimize egg production, an experiment was carried out with 432 30-week-old Hisex Brown layers. Birds were distributed into nine treatments with six replicates of eight birds each according to a 3 × 3 factorial arrangement, consisting of three daily metabolizable energy intake (280, 300 or 320 kcal/bird/day) and three oil levels (0.00; 0.75 and 1.50 g/bird/day). Daily feed intake was limited to 115, 110 and 105 g/bird in order to obtain the desired energy and oil intake in each treatment. The following parameters were evaluated: initial weight, final weight, body weight change, egg production, egg mass, feed conversion ratio per dozen eggs and per egg mass and energy conversion. There was no influence of the treatments on egg production (%) or egg mass (g/bird/day). Final weight and body weight change were significantly affected by increasing energy intake. Feed conversion ratio per egg mass, feed conversion ratio per dozen eggs and energy conversion significantly worsened as a function of the increase in daily energy intake. An energy intake of 280 kcal/bird/day with no addition of dietary oil does not affect layer performance.
Highlights
According to Tardin (1995), hens are able to control their feed intake, and their energy intake to supply their requirements for the accretion of muscles, bones, and feathers, and for egg production, as well as to replace losses associated with biosynthetic processes
Some studies have demonstrated that egg production is not affected by the dietary energy content (Harms et al, 2000), Valkonen et al (2008) obtained higher egg production in layers fed energy-rich diets, and Faria & Silva (2004) observed that when energy intake is deficient, egg production is compromised
There was no interaction between soybean oil and energy intake for any of the parameters evaluated, which shows that the main factors did not interfere with each other, and their effects were studied separately
Summary
Establishing the amount of feed intake is one of the main concerns of poultry nutritionists, considering that energy is the main factor that controls feed intake and that dietary energy represents a considerable part of costs with poultry feed (Penz Júnior & Pavan, 2007).According to Tardin (1995), hens are able to control their feed intake, and their energy intake to supply their requirements for the accretion of muscles, bones, and feathers, and for egg production, as well as to replace losses associated with biosynthetic processes. Harms et al (2000) mentioned that layers can cope better with a reduction than with an increase in dietary energy. some studies have demonstrated that egg production is not affected by the dietary energy content (Harms et al, 2000), Valkonen et al (2008) obtained higher egg production in layers fed energy-rich diets, and Faria & Silva (2004) observed that when energy intake is deficient, egg production is compromised.Oil and fat sources have been widely used in broiler feeds to increase dietary energy density and to promote higher energy intake (Moura et al, 2003), but this practice has not been much studied in layers. Establishing the amount of feed intake is one of the main concerns of poultry nutritionists, considering that energy is the main factor that controls feed intake and that dietary energy represents a considerable part of costs with poultry feed (Penz Júnior & Pavan, 2007). Some studies have demonstrated that egg production is not affected by the dietary energy content (Harms et al, 2000), Valkonen et al (2008) obtained higher egg production in layers fed energy-rich diets, and Faria & Silva (2004) observed that when energy intake is deficient, egg production is compromised. Oil and fat sources have been widely used in broiler feeds to increase dietary energy density and to promote higher energy intake (Moura et al, 2003), but this practice has not been much studied in layers. According to Pinto et al (2002), fats increase feed palatability and
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