Effect of Replacement of Soybean Meal with Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles in the Diets with or without Multienzyme Supplementation on the Performance of Layers

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of inclusion of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in replacement of soybean meal with or without multienzyme supplementation on egg quality and digestibility in commercial white leghorn layer diet. Two hundred (28 weeks old) commercial white leghorn layers were randomly distributed into 10 treatments with 5 replications of 4 birds each. DDGS was incorporated at 0.0, 2.0, 4.0, 6.0 and 8.0% into a basal diet representing 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40% soymeal replacement with DDGS and supplemented with multi enzyme (Natuzyme) at each level. There were no significant differences in digestibility coefficients of EE and NFE while the values for DM, CP and CF differed significantly. The feed intake and body weight were not affected by soybean meal replacement up to 40% level. No significant effect of enzyme supplementation was observed on feed intake and body weight change. The feed conversion ratio was better (P<0.05) with enzyme supplementation. The egg quality characteristics viz., egg shell weight, albumen index, Haugh unit and yolk index were similar in all the treatments, however, the values for shell thickness and shape index differed significantly (P<0.05). The egg production rate was higher (P<0.05) at 20% soybean meal replacement level.