Response of Laying Hens to total Dietary Replacement of Maize with Cassava.

Abstract

he response of Isa Brown laying hens during 77–85 weeks of age to peeled unfermented cassava root meal (CRM) as total substitute for maize in diet was examined. Eighty (80) hens were assigned to four dietary treatment groups (T1,T2,T3 and T4) in a completely randomized design. The control diet (CD) contained 40% maize while the proportion of maize in the CD was replaced with 100, 110 and 120% CRM amounting to 40, 44 and 48% of cassava in diet for T2, T3, and T4 respectively. All diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous. The CRM diets produced statistically significant (p<0.05) improvements by leading to lower feed intake, better feed conversion and increased hen day production (HDP) with increasing levels of CRM in diet. Although the eggs obtained from birds fed the CD had significantly higher yolk weight than those from the CRM, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in egg weight in all treatment groups. The best overall performance was achieved from birds fed 48% (120% replacement) cassava diet.