IMPACT OF REPLACEMENT OF DIETARY SOYBEAN MEAL WITH DRIED DISTILLERY YEAST SLUDGE ON PERFORMANCE AND HEALTH OF LAYER CHICKS

Abstract

The 600 layer chicks (day-old) were distributed into 5 groups having 4 replicates comprising 30 chicks each to evaluate impact of re-placement of dietary soybean meal with different level of dried dis-tillery yeast sludge (DYS) on performance, immunity, gut health and histopathology. The DYS was dried in a dryer and ground to a mesh size of 2 mm in a hammer mill. Five isocaloric and isonitrogeneous C (control), DYS5, DYS10, DYS15 and DYS20 layer starter diets were formulated to contain 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% DYS replacing soybean meal. Chicks fed ad libitum for the eight weeks. Water was available round the clock. The findings revealed significantly high (P<0.05) feed intake and weight gain in the chicks fed diet C than chicks fed DYS15 and DYS20 diets, whereas, it was same to chicks fed diet DYS10 and DYS5. The feed conversion ratio was similar among the chicks fed DYS5, DYS10, DYS15 and C diets, however, it was better (P<0.05) than chicks fed DYS20 diet. The lactobacillus count was different (P<0.05) across all diets. In conclusion, DYS can be includ-ed in the diet of layer chicks up to 10% without any adversarial im-pact on health as well as performance of chicks.