Cocoa Pod Husk Plus Enzymes is a Potential Feed Ingredient for Hy-Line Silver Brown Laying Hens

Abstract

The aim of the experiment was to determine whether the inclusion of pelleted cocoa pod husks (CPH) in diets for Hyline Silver Brown (HSB) layers would affect egg laying performance and egg characteristics. Two hundred and sixteen (216), 36-week old, HSB layers in battery cages were randomly assigned to twelve experimental diets for 12 weeks in a completely randomized design (CRD). Diets had three levels of CPH inclusion: 0, 10 and 15%. For each inclusion level, the diets were further sub-divided into four treatments. The four treatments either had, i) no enzyme, ii) phytase only, iii) a commercial enzymes cocktail only, or iv) a mixture of both phytase and cocktail. The enzyme cocktail and phytase were added at rates of 250g and 300g per ton of complete feed respectively according to the manufacturer’s recommendation. Overall, adding CPH did not affect Average Daily Feed Intake, although a combination of an enzyme cocktail and phytase improved ADFI, especially at the 15% CPH-inclusion level. Hen-day egg production of birds on diets with 0, 10 and 15% CPH, with an enzyme cocktail alone (78.70, 76.23 and 71.96% respectively), or with a combination of enzyme cocktail and phytase (79.5, 71.89 and 72.16% respectively) was better than egg production of hens on the other diets. There were no effects of CPH or enzyme addition on egg quality characteristics. Cocoa pod husk can be used in diets for HSB birds (up to 15%) without adversely affecting production performance or egg quality characteristics when appropriate exogenous enzymes are added.