Use of Poultry Offal Waste as a Protein Source to Substitute Fish Meal in Laying Hen Diet on Production Performance and Egg Quality

Abstract

     Poultry offal waste (POW) containing high protein and fat, from poultry slaughterhouses creates a pollution problem in the community. This study aimed to assess the optimum level of POW as a protein source to substitute fish meal (FM) in laying hen diet. Six hundred heads of 48-week-old HyLine Brown laying hens were used in a completely randomized design experiment of 24 weeks long. The hens were randomly divided into 5 treatments with 3 replicates per treatment. Each replicate consisted of 40 birds randomly placed in battery wire cages which contained 4 heads/cage in an Evaporative cooling house. Experimental diets were 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of POW substitution for FM. All diets were adjusted to be iso-nitrogenous at 16% CP.It was found that POW from a broiler slaughterhouse in Chiang Mai, was autoclaved at 30 psi, 135 °C for 5 minutes, and then was dried in a hot air oven, with air dry basis 66.10% CP, 0.37% CF and 5.19% EE. It had higher CP and EE, but lower ash than FM. The use of 75 and 100% POW to substitute FM decreased egg production, eggshell thickness and eggshell breaking strength, while feed cost per dozen eggs and egg weight were significantly higher as compared to the control group (P<0.05). In conclusion, POW can be used to substitute FM in laying hen diets, during the last period before culling, up to 50% without adverse effect on production cost, egg quality and egg production.