EVALUATION OF QUALITY PROTEIN MAIZE AS A FEED INGREDIENT FOR LAYER PULLET

Abstract

The experiment was carried out in two periods, growing and laying, on 300 eight-week-old pullets (Shaver Starcross 579 strain). In the growing period (8-18 weeks of age) five iso-caloric diets were used: controls containing normal maize and fish meal, with 16% CP (NM1) or 14% CP (NM2); three experimental in which normal maize was replaced by quality protein maize, with 16, 15 or 14% CP, QPM1, QPM2 or QPM3, respectively. In the laying period similar diets were used, but with lower CP contents: 15, 13, 15, 14 and 13%, respectively. The replacement of NM by QPM in the diet with 14% CP (QPM3) did not significantly reduce the performance of growing birds in comparison with birds fed the NM1 diet with 17% CP. The NM2 diet significantly (P<0.05) depressed growth and feed efficiency. In the laying period, QPM3 and NM2 diets (13% CP) depressed the pullets' performance. The obtained results indicate that the level of CP in the layer diets may be reduced to 14% when NM is replaced by QPM.