Inclusion of leucaena leaf hay in th e diet of laying hens during the growing phase

Alexsandro  Nunes de Oliveira; Ednardo  Rodrigues Freitas; Carlos Eduardo  Braga Cruz; Thales Marcel  Bezerra Filgueira; Germano Augusto  Jerônimo do Nascimento; Raffaella  Castro Lima

Inclusion of leucaena leaf hay in th e diet of laying hens during the growing phase

Autores

Alexsandro Nunes de Oliveira

Ednardo Rodrigues Freitas

Carlos Eduardo Braga Cruz

Thales Marcel Bezerra Filgueira

Germano Augusto Jerônimo do Nascimento

Raffaella Castro Lima

Editor

Universidade Estadual de Maringá

Descripción

Current experiment evaluated the effects of inclusion of leucaena leaf hay (LLH) on the performance and nutrient digestibility of diets for la ying hens during the gr owth phase (14-18 weeks). Ninety pullets (Rhode Island Red and New Hampshir e) were distributed in a completely randomized design with three treatments (0%, 5% and 10% inclusion of LLH) and five replicates, with six birds. Feed intake (g bird -1 day -1 ), weight gain (g bird -1 day -1 ), feed conversion (kg kg -1 ), metabolizable energy intake (kcal bird -1 day -1 ), intake of crude protein (g bird -1 day -1 ), coefficients of dr y matter (CDDM) and gross energy (CDCE), nitrogen digestibility (CDN), a pparent metabolizable energy (AME) and apparent metabolizable energy corrected for nitrogen (AMEn) were evaluated. The inclusion of LLH did not statistically influence CDN, AME and AMEn of diet. However, this inclusion significantly affected CDDM and CDCE, resulting in lower CDDM and CD CE with inclusion of 10%. Whereas the use of nutrients by chicks fed on diets with the inclusion of LLH allowed the same amount of metabolizable energy, inclusion of up to 10% of LLH diet during th e growth phase (14-19 weeks) of laying hens (Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire) may be recommended.