Effect of broccoli on the feeding of laying hens and egg quality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20431269Keywords:
animal feeding, circular economy, egg protein, sustainability, waste utilizationAbstract
Introduction: the waste of agricultural by-products such as broccoli leaves and stems represents an environmental problem and a loss of potentially usable nutrients in animal feed. Objective: to evaluate the effect of including different levels of broccoli by-products (5, 10 and 15 %) in laying hens feed, on egg nutritional quality, productive performance and feed costs. Method: a completely randomized design was used with 100 crossbred hens (creole x araucana) of 31 weeks, distributed in four treatments (n=25 each): T0 (control, only balanced feed), T1 (balanced feed + 5 % fresh broccoli), T2 (balanced feed + 10 % broccoli) and T3 (balanced feed + 15 % broccoli), for 60 days. Egg protein, egg weight, hen body weight and costs were evaluated. Results: no significant differences were found in egg protein (12-12.1 %) or egg weight (means between 54.52 and 55.05g). Treatment T3 (15 %) showed the highest final weight of hens (1855.96 g) and the lowest total cost (277.88 USD vs 282.50 USD for control). Conclusion: the inclusion of up to 15 % broccoli by-products does not negatively affect egg protein quality or egg weight, reduces feed costs and represents a sustainable alternative for poultry farming.
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