Gawande, J., Wade, M.R., Manwar, S.J., Kuralkar, S.V., Kapale, P.M.and Kamdi, B.P. 2025. Effect of dietary rice husk as insoluble fiber on the production performance and egg quality in layers. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 60(1): 37-43. The trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary rice husk as insoluble crude fiber on the performance and egg quality in layers. A total of 144 layers aged 25 weeks were divided into 4 groups, each of which had 6 repetitions with a total of 6 hens in each replicate. The dietary treatments were the control (T1) basal diet containing 6% crude fiber (CF), the insoluble crud fiber enhanced using rice husk at 25%, 50%, or 75% above 6.0% for T2, T3, and T4, respectively. Productive performance was recorded for 10 weeks and egg quality was evaluated fortnightly. The birds fed rice husk (7.5, 9.0 or 10.5% CF) showed significantly lower feed consumption as compared to control. The egg production was lowered @ 1.38%, 2.84%, 4.81% in birds fed CF with rice husk at 7.5%, 9.0%, 10.5%, respectively as compared to control. The hen house egg production (HHEP) / hen day egg production (HDEP) of the control and T2 groups are comparable. The birds fed with7.5% CF found non-significant FCR on egg number basis. However, the birds fed with 9.0 or10.5% CF found poor FCR as compared to control. The percent weekly egg production, egg weight was reduced with increase in CF. The egg surface was decreased with increasing CF level. Body weight, shape index, haugh unit, albumen index, yolk index, yolk colour score, percent eggshell weight, egg shell thickness were not affected by higher insoluble CF levels. Economically birds fed with 25% CF got the highest profit per egg and cost of egg production reduced up to 3.8% over control. In conclusion, the 50% insoluble crude fiber over 6% CF could be included in layers chicken diet, however, 25% insoluble CF is most economically beneficial compared to other rice husk groups.
Premkumar, K., Kannan1, D., Vasanthakumar, P. , Rajendran, K., Ramakrishnan, S. and Kannan, V. 2025. Effect of replacement of shell grit with stone grit on egg quality characteristics in Namakkal Gold Quail. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 60(1): 19-28. A study was undertaken to evaluate the feasibility of using stone grit as an alternative calcium source in egg type Japanese quail diet. A biological trial was conducted by using 360 numbers of five week old female “TANUVAS Namakkal Gold quail” strain developed for egg production, divided into five dietary treatment groups, by replacing shell grit with 2 mm or 4 mm stone grit at 50 or 100 per cent levels in the diet. The study was conducted for 52 weeks, monitoring egg quality and calcium content in eggshell for every 28 days period. Both external and internal quality of the eggs was ascertained from 8 to 52 weeks of age, totally seven periods at 8, 12, 20, 28, 36, 44 and 52 weeks of age. Five eggs having the average egg weight without any shell defects from each replicate were selected for egg quality analysis. Partial (50 per cent) replacement with 2 mm stone grit resulted in significantly heavier eggs at 36 (P<0.05) and 52 (P<0.01) weeks of age, compared to control and other groups. Albumen quality (albumen index and Haugh unit) was significantly lower (P<0.01) in both 50 per cent replacement groups at 8, 28 and 36 weeks. Yolk quality (yolk index) was lower (P<0.01) in the 50 per cent replacement with 2 mm stone grit group at 20, 36, 44 and 52 weeks. Yolk color was significantly reduced (P<0.01) in the 50 per cent replacement with 4 mm stone grit group at 28, 36 and 44 weeks. Eggshell thickness and eggshell weight was significantly higher (P<0.01) in 50 per cent replacement with 2 mm stone grit fed group at 8 and 52 weeks of age. Eggshell calcium content and shape index were unaffected by treatments throughout the study period. However, all egg quality parameters were not significant for the overall study period, suggesting that both 2 mm and 4 mm stone grit can be safely included in the egg type quail ration without compromising the egg quality.
Adkine, A.C., Khose, K.K., Nikam M.G., Gangabe,, G.R., Munde V.K., Waghamare, R.N. and Kekan, P.M. 2025. Effect of rice distiller’s dried grains with soluble in diet on production performance and economics of eggs production in layers. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 60(1): 29-36. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary rice distiller’s dried grains with soluble (rDDGS) on egg production, egg weight, and the economics of egg production in laying hens. The study utilized 144 BV-300 layers, aged 59 weeks, over a 12-week period. Birds were randomly allocated into four dietary treatments (T1 to T4) with 36 birds per group and six replicates per group. The control group (T1) was fed a basal diet formulated according to BV-300 strain recommendations. Treatments T2, T3, and T4 included rDDGS at 5%, 10%, and 15%, respectively, by replacing soybean meal in the diet. The inclusion of rDDGS at 0, 5, 10, and 15% (T1, T2, T3, T4, respectively) had no significant influence on live body weight, feed consumption, and hen-housed egg production. However, weekly egg production percentage was significantly higher (P<0.05) in T2 compared to T3 and T4. Egg weight was significantly lower (P<0.05) in T4 than in T1 and T2. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) based on egg number was significantly better (P<0.05) in T2 than in T3 and T4. Furthermore, weekly FCR based on egg mass was significantly better (P<0.01) in T2 than in T4. The cost of production per egg was Rs. 4.42, 4.19, 4.06, and 3.88 for T1, T2, T3, and T4, respectively. Consequently, the net profit per egg was Rs. 0.08, 0.31, 0.44, and 0.62 for the respective treatments. In conclusion, rDDGS can be included in layer diets at up to 15% as a replacement for soybean meal without adversely affecting body weight, feed intake, egg production, or FCR. The 15% inclusion level was the most economically beneficial due to a reduced feed cost and lower cost of egg production.
Shinde, S.S., Londhe, G.K., Patil, R.A., Nikam, M.G. and Gaikwad, B.S. 2024. Effect of black cumin (nigella sativa) and garlic (allium sativum) as natural feed additive on growth performance of kaveri chicken. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 59(2): 143–151. The present experimental trial was conducted to study the effect of black cumin (Nigella sativa) and garlic (Allium sativum) as natural feed additive on growth performance of Kaveri chicken a backyard poultry variety. Three experimental trials were carried out in three distinct seasons for the experiment. The first trial took place in the winter, from 22 October 2020 to 31 December 2020; the second trial took place in the summer, from 27 February 2021 to 8 May 2021; and the third trial took place in the rainy season, from 5 June 2022 to 14 August 2022. The experimental trials were conducted using two hundred-day old Kaveri chicks for a period of ten weeks. The chicks were split up into in five treatments of 40 chicks in each treatment with four replications of ten chicks. The basal diet was given to the control (T1) group, while the feed was supplemented with Neodox @ 250g/tone of feed, 1% black cumin seed, 1% garlic mash and 0.5% black cumin seed + 0.5% garlic mash for the T2, T3, T4 and T5 groups. The results of the present experiments indicated that basal diet supplemented with combination of black cumin seed and garlic mash (0.5+0.5%) increased body weight, weight gain, feed consumption, water intake and improved feed conversion significantly (P<0.05). The significantly higher body weight, weight gain, feed consumption and better feed efficiency was recorded in T2 group followed by T5, T4, T3 and lowest in T1 control group in each trial. It was concluded that 0.5+0.5% black cumin seed and garlic mash in Kaveri chicken diets can be used as natural feed additive by replacing antibiotic and enhancing growth performance, feed conversion of Kaveri birds.
Rajesh, Y.V.S., Narendranath, D., Naga Raja Kumari, K. and Kavitha, P. 2024. Effect of inclusion of Rice Dried Distillers Grain Soluble (RDDGS) at varying levels with or without enzyme supplementation on growth performance of Japanese quails. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 59(2): 123–128. The study was conducted to assess the effect of dietary incorporation of rice distiller dried grain solubles (RDDGS) with or without enzyme supplementation on growth performance of Japanese quails. Day-old Japanese quails (N= 180) were distributed randomly into six dietary groups each with three replicates of 10 birds. Six experimental diets were formulated by inclusion of RDDGS at 0% (Basal diet, T1), 0% (Basal diet with enzyme, T2), 20% (T3), 20% (with enzyme, T4), 25% (T5) and 25% (with enzyme, T6) levels by marginal adjustment of other feed ingredients and fed for a period of five weeks. Results revealed that inclusion of RDDGS up to 20% with enzyme had significant positive influence on body weight and body weight gain (p<0.01), lower the feed intake (p<0.01) and better FCR (p<0.01). The nutrient digestibility wasn’t differed significantly. The feed cost per kg live weight gain was significantly lowest in T4 group (20% with enzyme). Basing on the findings, it can be concluded that RDDGS can be incorporated up to 20 per cent level with enzyme supplementation in diets of quails for economic production.
