The productive performance and egg quality of laying hens under the effect of dietary fenugreek seeds (ungerminated and germinated) and different dietary protein levels [electronic resource].

Includes reference.

Thisexperiment was conducted to study the effects of fenugreek (germinated and ungerminated) and dietary protein on the productive performance, egg quality and economical efficiency of laying hens. A total number of 180 Hy-Line W- 36 laying hens 49 weeks old were distributed randoruly into fifteen equal groups each group contain 12 hens, one hen / replicate. The experiment was designed as factorial arrangement, three levels of crude protein (CP: 14.75,13.25,and 11.75%) x five levels of fenugreek (0.0, 1.0% ungerminated, 2.0% ungerminated, 1.0% germinated, 2.0% germinated) The resultsobtainedcouldbe summarized as follows: The group fed diet contains 14.75 o/oCP+ 1% germinated fenugreek seeds had the highest values of egg production (EP%) andegg mass (EM), best values of feed conversion (FC) and caloric conversion ratio (CCR) and the group fed diet contains 13.25 %CP+ 1% ungerminatedfenugreek seeds had the best value of crude protein conversion(CPC). However, the lowest values of EP% and EM were for the group fed 11.75%+ 2% ungerminated fenugreek seeds, and the worst values of FC, CPC and CCR were for the group fed 11.75%+1% germinatedfenugreek seeds. The highest value of yolk % wasfound with the group fed 14.75% + 2% ungerminated fenugreek However, the group fed 13.25 % CP+ 0.0 fenugreekhad the highest value of yolk color, but the highest values of Yolk index (Yl) % and Haugh unit (HU) were for the group fed 11.75% CP +2.0% germinatedfenugreek The group which fed diet contains 14.75% CP level had significantly higher EP%, EM, egg weight (EW), feed intake (Fl) and, it had better FC and CCR than the other groups.The 13.25% CP level had the highestvalues of yolk colorand the 11.75%CP levelhad thehighest Yl or HU No significant differences were found in EP%, EM, EW, Fl, FC, CPC,CCR and LBWC amonge the goups which fed diets contain the fenugreek (ungerminated or germinated) compared with the control, All levels of fenugreek caused high significant increase in the Yl values compared to the control, Also, the group of 2% ungerminated fenugreek had the highest value of 00. Using germinated fenugreek seeds at 1% level in the diet of layers that contains the CP% requirements improved the economical efficiency and relative economical efficiency of laying hens compared with the others.

Summary in Arabic.

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