Abstract
An experiment involving 320 Hy-line laying hens, 10 mo of age, was conducted for 56 days to evaluate the feeding value of two aquatic plants, elodea (Elodea canadensis Michx.) and hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata Rich., with and without pithophora) as well as their effect on bird performance and egg-yolk pigmentation. Aquatic plants were formulated in corn-soybean diets producing the following treatments: 1) control (corn-soybean meal), 2) 7.5% elodea, 3) 7.5% hydrilla, and 4) 7.5% hydrilla and algae (Pithophora spp.). Differences were not found (P>.05) among egg production, feed conversion, spleen weight, hemoglobin, and hematocrits for the four treatments. Aquatic plants did not adversely affect the variables of egg weight, egg specific gravity, and Haugh units. Adding aquatic plants to the diets increased yolk pigmentation (dominant wavelength) over the controls. The data suggest that these aquatic plants may be used as feed ingredients at 7.5% in diets for laying hens.
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