EFFECTS OF FIVE DIFFERENT DIETARY VITAMIN MINERAL PREMIXES ON CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF EGGS FROM LAYERS IN BATTERY CAGE HOUSING SYSTEM

Abstract

Effects of five different proprietary vitamin-mineral premixes (PVMP) on chemical composition of eggs produced by laying chickens kept in the battery cages were determined. Five isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets were formulated and each respectively supplemented with 0.25% of a brand of the five proprietary vitamin-mineral premixes. In a completely randomized design, Ninety Bovans Nera chickens were allocated to five treatments each in triplicate of six birds per replicate. The five diets were then fed to the respective experimental birds from the onset of lay at week 19 until week 41, when samples of eggs were collected for analyses. There was no significant effect (p> 0.05) of dietary PVMP supplementation on eggs moisture (%), crude protein (%), ether extracts (%) and true protein (%) contents. However, values recorded for ash (%) were 0.92, 0.96, 1.06, 1.02 and 1.14 for eggs collected from laying chickens fed diets supplemented with PVMP 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. The gross energy, calcium and phosphorous composition were consistently higher (p<0.05) for eggs collected from chickens on PVMP 5. Effects of the different PVMP tended to be only on minerals and energy composition of eggs.