Economic Analysis, Egg Quality and Growth Parameters of Pullets Fed Graded Levels of Eggshell Meal

Background and Objective: The use of local, cheap, and readily available materials, particularly those that are readily utilized by man, could serve as an economical source of calcium in livestock feeding. A 21-day feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of the use of ground chicken eggshells as a calcium source in layer diets on the economic analysis, egg quality, and growth parameters of pullets. Materials and Methods: The study specifically evaluated the growth, external eggshell quality, internal eggshell quality, and economic parameters of 60 Arbor Acres layers aged 24 weeks. The layers were housed in a conventional open-sided house containing 15 individual floor pens and acclimatized for 2 weeks. Thereafter, the initial weight of the layers was recorded before they were randomly assigned to 5 dietary treatments with 12 birds per treatment in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Each treatment group was further replicated 3 times with 4 birds per replicate. Diet 1 served as the control and did not contain eggshell meal. Diets 2, 3, 4, and 5 contained 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0% of the eggshell meal, respectively. Results: The test diets 4 (23.53%) and 5 (27.45%) significantly (p<0.05) increased the weight of layers more than the control diet (5.88%). The percentage hen-day egg production for all the test diets 3, 4, and 5 was significantly (p<0.05) better than treatment diet 1. The feed cost/kg for the test diets 2, 3, 4, and 5 was significant (p<0.005) and more economical than treatment 1 (control diet). Conclusion: The eggshell meal significantly improved the growth parameters, egg quality traits, and the economics of egg production in laying chickens.