Effects of Cassava Substitute for Maize Based Diets on Performance Characteristics and Egg Quality of Laying Hens

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The effects of feeding diets containing cassava meal (tuber and leaf) were investigated on feed intake, feed conversion ratio, weight gain, egg performance and egg quality of layer during 5 weeks of feeding experiment. Thirty-six white leghorn layer were allocated into 4 groups of nine hens each. Diet I, contained no cassava meal but maize 57% of the diet and served as the control. In diet II, III and IV, the proportion of maize was substituted with the cassava meal at the levels of 30% (30% tuber+0% leaf), 40% (30% tuber+10% leaf) and 50% (30% tuber+20% leaf), respectively. Egg laying rate tended to decrease with the IV, although there was no significant different between them. Haugh unit value in the hens fed diet III were significantly higher (p<0.05) than those fed other diets. Hens fed cassava meal diets had higher yolk color score than the control fed with maize based diet. The results demonstrated that, up to 40% of maize could be replaced with cassava meal for improving laying performance and egg quality. Moreover, supplementation with cassava leaf to tuber was efficient in lowering yolk cholesterol contents.