The Value of Dried Fish Silage for Pullet and The layer Hen

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted with golden Hubbard pullet chicks to investigate the replacement effects of locally prepared fish silage for imported fish meal in pullet and layers' rations. Acidic and neutral fish silage preparations concentrated with either maize or cassava plus groundnut meal and wheat offals, were fed as a substitute for fish meal. Results with pullets showed good feed consumption for all dietary treatments but feed efficiency was decreased (P<0.05) for neutral cassava, acidic maize and acidic cassava fish silage treatments. Pullet mortality was between 0.18 and 4.17%, being significantly (P<0.05) highest in the acidic fish silage diets. Lipid retention, metabolizable energy (ME) and efficiency of energy utilization (ME%) were similar across all treatments except for neutral maize fish silage, in which ME was slightly high and lipid retention low. Egg production and egg size significantly (P<0.05) decreased among groups of birds fed acidic maize acidic cassava and neutral cassava fish silage diets. Similarly, the efficiency of feed conversion to eggs decreased (P<0.05) in all fish silage substituted diets.