The effect of incorporating palm oil in the diets of layers fed different energy/protein combination levels and raised in a hot semi-arid condition.

摘要

An experiment was conducted to ascertain the effect of added different levels of palm oil in layer diets, formulated to contain different levels of energy/protein combinations in a semi-arid hot environmental region. Addition of 40 g/Kg palm oil ina diet contains low energy (11.2 MJ/Kg) low protein (163.5 g/Kg) improved feed intake, egg production, energy intake and egg mass of layers raised in hot environment. The inclusion of 40 g/Kg palm oil alone improved the efficiency of feed utilization inthe layer's diet. There was a linear trend for body weight to be lower as level of palm oil increased from zero to 40 g/Kg. Eggs were numerically (non significantly) larger and mortality was lower when 40 g/Kg palm oil had been added in the lower densitydiet. The inclusion of palm oil in the diet of laying hens, partially, alleviated the heat stress on the birds and improved the performance especially when added in a low energy/low protein diet.