PERFORMANCE OF LAYING HENS FED DIETS CONTAINING GUMS DERIVED FROM TOWER RAPESEED
An experiment was conducted to investigate whether rapeseed gums have any detrimental effect on the performance of laying hens. White leghorn pullets of a commercial strain were fed all-mash diets in which the major source of protein was provided by either soybean meal, rapeseed meal, rapeseed meal + 1.5% rapeseed gums, soybean meal + 1.5% rapeseed gums or soybean meal + 1.5% soybean gums. Each diet was offered to four replicate groups of 12 birds during ten 28-day experimental periods. Dietary treatment had no significant [Formula: see text] effect on feed intake or egg production. Birds fed diets containing rapeseed meal produced significantly [Formula: see text] smaller eggs than those birds receiving soybean meal with no added rapeseed gums. Eggshell quality as measured by shell deformation was significantly [Formula: see text] improved when birds were fed rapeseed meal + rapeseed gums or soybean meal + soybean gums, compared to those birds fed either rapeseed meal, or soybean meal with added rapeseed gums. Rapeseed gums had no significant [Formula: see text] effect on body weight or the incidence of liver hematoma. It is concluded that no deleterious effects accrue from feeding laying birds diets containing rapeseed meal to which has been added 1.5% gums, and that the addition of such gums provides rapeseed processors with a useful pollution-free method for their disposal.