PERFORMANCE OF DESI (NATIVE) LAYING HENS FED ON VARYING DIETARY PROTEIN CONTENTS

Abdul Waheed Sahota and Bashir Mahmood Bhatti

Abstract   

    This experiment was conducted to study effects of different dietary protein contents on the productive performance of Desi (native) chickens maintained under controlled housing conditions. For this purpose, 360 adult (30 weeks-old) Desi laying hens, divided into 3 equal groups were fed ad libitum on 3 iso- caloric rations each containing 12, 14 or 16% crude protein for a period of 50 weeks. The results indicated that dietary protein content significantly (P<0.01) affected performance of Desi chickens in terms of feed intake, egg weight, feed conversion efficiency and egg production (P<0.05). The findings further showed that Desi chickens fed ration containing 14 or 16% crude protein exhibited better productive performance than those fed on ration containing 12% protein content. However, non-significant difference between productive performance of Desi chickens fed on rations containing 14 or 16% crude protein was observed. The findings of this study suggested that Desi laying chickens could give better productive performance when fed diet of 14°10 crude protein content.