1Department of Animal Production, Federal University of Technology, P.M.B. 65, Minna, Nigeria.
Department of Animal Production, University of Limpopo, Private Bag X 1106, Sovenga, 0727, South Africa.
2Department of Agriculture, Aniaml Health and Human Ecology, University of South African.
The study was conducted to investigate the effects of dried baker's yeast inclusion in rice husk-based diets on performance and egg quality parameters in laying hens. A total of 150 Isa brown laying hens aged 25 weeks were allocated to five dietary treatments (0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00 % yeast inclusion level) with three replicates per treatment in a complete randomized design. The experiment lasted for twelve weeks. Hens fed diets with yeast had higher (P<0.05) final body weight, egg weight, egg albumen height and egg albumen weight than the control. The final body weight, egg weight, albumen weight and albumen height were optimized at 0.70, 0.99, 0.49 and 0.78, respectively. It was concluded that dried baker's yeast inclusion in rice husk-based diets improved egg weight, egg albumen height and albumen weight in Isa brown hens.
Laying hens, Rice husk, Dried baker, Yeast
