Effect of replacing fish meal by soybean meal on the performance, metabolizability of nutrients and egg quality of Khaki campbell laying ducks

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of replacing fish meal by soybean meal on the performance, nutrient utilization and egg quality of Khaki Campbell laying ducks. Khaki Campbell laying ducks (35 weeks) were divided into three groups (each having 3 replicates of eight laying ducks) and were randomly fed three experimental diets (T₁-Control diet soybean meal and fish meal, T₂-fish meal totally replaced by soybean meal, T₃-T₂+ supplementation of amino acids i.e. Lysine and Methionine for a period of 100 days. All the diets were made isonitrogenous and isocaloric. The egg production, duck day egg production percent and egg weight were significantly (P<0.05) higher for ducks fed diet containing fish meal. The feed conversion ratio was significantly better in ducks of fish meal group. The feed intake and cost of feed per dozen egg was significantly (P<0.05) reduced in fish meal fed ducks. The metabolizability of nutrients and nitrogen balance were similar for all the groups. However, the digestibility of organic matter was significantly better for the amino acid supplemented group (T₃). The egg quality characteristics viz., shape index, yolk index, albumen index and haugh unit score were significantly (P<0.05) higher for ducks fed diet where fish meal was completely replaced by soybean meal with addition of lysine and methionine. It may be concluded that replacement of fish meal by soybean reduced the performance of ducks in terms of egg production, egg weight, FCR and increased cost of egg production. However, the egg quality was improved due in soybean meal diet with addition of lysine and methionine.