EFFECTS OF FEEDING GRADED LEVELS OF ALTERNATIVE LOCALLY PRODUCED NATURAL VITAMIN PREMIX ON THE PERFORMANCE OF LAYING HENS

Résumé

One hundred and twenty (120) Harco laying hens were randomly allocated to diets containing graded levels (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0%) of locally produced Natural vitamin premix (LPNVP) with the sole objective of its assessing influence on the laying performance of the hens. Feed intake, percentage Hen-day production (HDP), feed utilization efficiency (FUE), egg weight (EW), egg specific gravity (ESG), egg shell thickness (EST), Haugh unit (HU) and estimated gross profit. (EGP) were not influenced (P < 0.05) by the type of premix used (synthetic or natural). Inclusion of LPNVP in layers’ feed at dietary levels 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% resulted in better egg quality and estimated economic returns than observed in birds fed with the diet containing reference synthetic vitamin premix (SVP)