Effects of dietary protein on egg production of laying hens housed in furnished or conventional cages |
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| Authors: | Eija Valkonen Eija Venäläinen Laila Rossow Jarmo Valaja |
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| Institution: | 1. MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Animal Production Research, Animal Nutrition , Jokioinen, Finland eija.valkonen@mtt.fi;3. MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Animal Production Research, Animal Nutrition , Jokioinen, Finland;4. Department of Pathology , National Veterinary and Food Research Institute, EELA , Helsinki, Finland |
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| Abstract: | Abstract In the present experiment the effects of dietary protein content on egg production of hens kept either in conventional cages (CCs) or furnished cages (FCs) were studied. A total of 1088 LSL (Lohmann LSL-Classic Layer) hens were housed in either FCs or CCs and offered high or low protein diets with a protein/energy ratio of 17 or 13, respectively, during three consecutive feeding phases of 20, 16 and 16 weeks, respectively. There was no interaction between the effects of cage design and of dietary treatment on laying performance. Hens kept in FCs consumed less feed than hens in CCs (p<0.05). After the first feeding phase, hens housed in FCs produced fewer eggs (p<0.01) than hens in CCs. No differences in the feed conversion ratio were found between the housing systems. Hens on the low protein diet laid smaller eggs than hens on the high protein diet (p<0.001). No effect of dietary protein on laying rate was found. It can be concluded that dietary protein affects egg production irrespective of the cage type. |
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| Keywords: | Amino acids egg quality enriched cage feed intake |
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