Replacement value of liver meal in layer ration

Abstract

An experiment to evaluate the nutritional and economic impact of replacing unsalted dried fish with liver meal in layer ration was conducted using single comb White Leghorn pullet. Five diets with 0,25,50,75 and 100 per cent replacement of usalted dried fish with liver meal were tried over four 28-day periods.

The per cent hen-housed egg production recorded for the five dietary treatments were 51.25, 48.25, 49.41, 48.51 and 43.93 respectively for diets in which 0, 25,50,75 and 100 per cent unsalted dried fish was replaced by liver meal. The per cent egg production both in terms of hen-housed and hen-day as well as feed efficiency, livability and egg quality traits such as egg weight, Haugh unit score and egg shell thickness were not statistically different among dietary treatments. However, the cost of rations showed an increasing trend depending upon the level of substitution with liver meal, least being for the ration in which unsalted dried fish was not substituted (Rs.1.65/Kg) and highest being in the ration were 100 per cent unsalted dried fish was replaced with liver meal (Rs. 1.96/Kg.).

It was concluded that liver meal can be used to replace the entire quantity of unsalted dried fish in layer ration without any detrimental effects on major egg production parameters. However, the higher cost of liver meal puts limitation on its use in poultry rations.