Egg quality of laying hens fed different levels of feather meal

Abstract

Poultry farming in Moldova is one of the most important branches of agriculture. Conducting poultry farming on an industrial basis makes it possible to obtain high-quality products with high efficiency of feed payment. Modern industrial poultry farming uses highly productive hybrid poultry for the production of eggs and meat, which makes high demands on complete feeding. The present study was conducted in a commercial poultry farm to investigate the effect of feather meal added to the diet on the performance and quality of eggs of laying hens between 21 and 34 weeks of age. A total of 1,000 Hy-Line brown laying hens were housed in 6-tiered cages. According to the results of studies on the use of feed flour from feathers as part of compound feed for egg-laying hens, it was revealed that its use contributed to an increase in the productive qualities of poultry. The results showed that performance in terms of egg production, egg weight and protein mass depended on the inclusion of feather meal at levels of 2 or 3.5% of the diet. The use of feather meal in the diets of chickens at the beginning of oviposition affected the increase in the mass of eggs in EG1 by 1.3 g (2.6%; P<0.05), in EG2 by 0.5 g (1.0%, P<0.05) in EG3 0.63 g (1.2%, Р<0.05). In all experimental groups, an increase in shell thickness and weight was observed, which varied from 6.01g (EG2) to 6.28g (EG1) in comparison with the control group, where the shell weight was 5.91g. Indicators were obtained by the production of chickens EG1 (29.75 points) in terms of such indicators as the aroma and taste of protein. In terms of taste, the experimental groups were superior to the control group, respectively. Thus, it was found that the addition of feather meal had a significant improvement in some indicators of the quality of eggs and their organoleptic indicators in the experimental groups compared to the control.