LAYING PERFORMANCE AND EGG QUALITY OF HENS FED BOILED UNRIPE PLANTAIN (Musa paradisiaca cv. cadava) PEEL FLOUR DIETS

Abstract

he laying performance and egg quality of hens fed diets containing Boiled Unripe Plantain Peel Flour (BUPPF) as a replacement for maize offal was studied for a period of 6 weeks. One hundred and fifty-six 18-weeks old ISA Brown laying hens were randomly divided into 3 dietary treatments, with 4 replicates of 13 birds each. A total of 52 birds were in a treatment group. Dietary treatment groups were: 0% BUPPF (control), 10% BUPPF (T1) and 20% BUPPF (T3) in a completely randomized design. Data were collected on hen day egg production, Average Daily Intake (ADI), feed conversion, Albumin Weight (AW), Yolk Weight (YW), Shell Plus Membrane Weight (SPMW), Yolk Index (YI) and Yolk Colour (YC). All data collected were analysed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that laying hens fed BUPPF diets had significantly higher ADI (p=0.001) and SPMW (p=0.0005) than those fed control diet.  Eggs from hens fed control diet had the highest AW (p=0.0003), YI (p= 0.013) and best YC (p˂0.001). Conclusively, boiled unripe plantain peel had adverse effects on yolk index and yolk colour. Therefore, boiling may not be a suitable method for processing unripe plantain peel as there were no improvement in laying performance and egg quality of hens fed boiled unripe plantain peel diets.