Nutritional and Economic Value of Leaf Meal (Tephrosia bracteolata) in Diet of Laying Hens

摘要

The performance, egg qualities, costs and dry matter turn-over of Tephrosia bracteolata leaf meal (TLM) were investigated in diets of egg type chickens. The experiment involved 40, 25 weeks old Nera black layers in a 70 day feeding trial. There were 4 dietary treatments. Diets 1 was the control with 0% TLM while diets 2, 3 and 4 contained 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5% levels of TLM, respectively and were arranged in one way analysis of variance in a completely randomized design. Feed intake decline with progressive inclusion of TLM and significantly depressed (p<0.05) at 7.5% inclusion of TLM. However, egg production, egg weight, body weight gain and feed conversion ratios were not significantly different (p>0.05) across the treatments. Similarly, egg quality parameters including shell thickness, albumen and yolk weight were not affected (p>0.05) except for the yolk colour that greatly intensified (p<0.01) with progressive inclusion of the leaf meal. While, dry matter turn-over of TLM was about 30% on as fed basis, egg output and revenue generated showed that control, 2.5 and 5.0% TLM dietary treatments were comparable and that control was significantly better than the 7.5% TLM treatment. It is suggested that TLM may be safely included up to 5.0% in layers? diet in situation of shortage and or high cost of grains and protein ingredients with impressive yolk colouration. Improvement in the utilization of the leaf meal portends better economic returns.