Abstract
A 12-week feeding trial was conducted to compare the effect of toasted and fermented Icacinia manni meals on the performance and egg quality characteristic of laying hens. Fresh tubers of Icacinia manni were harvested, washed chopped into pieces and divided into two portions. One portion was sundried, ground and toasted to produced toasted Icacinia manni meal (TIMM). The other portion was soaked in water for 72 hours, thereafter bagged and the fermented water squeezed out, sundried and ground to produce fermented Icacinia manni meal (FIMM). Five diets were formulated to form T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5. T1 (control) used maize as the source of energy, T2 and T3 contained 10% and 20% TIMM< while T4 and T5 contained 10% and 20% FIMM respectively partly replacing maize in the diet. One hundred and fifty laying hens were divided into five groups of thirty birds. Each group was assigned to one of the treatment diets in a completely randomized design. Each group was further divided into three replicates of ten birds per replicate. Data collected on performance and egg quality characteristics of the laying hens were statistically analyzed. Body weight changes, feed intake, egg weight and hen-day production of the birds were not significantly affected (p>0.05) by the diet except the 20% TIMM group. No significant (p>0.05) differences were recorded in shell weight, shell thickness, egg breaking strength and yolk colour of the laying hens across treatments. 20% TIMM group recorded significant reductions in yolk weight, yolk height, yolk diameter and yolk index value. Albumen height, albumen index, albumen diameter, shape index, haugh unit albumen weight and shell surface area were not negatively influence by the diet except for those fed with 20% TIMM. The study therefore revealed that laying hens fed FIMM performed better than the TIMM groups since FIMM at 20% dietary level enhanced the performance and egg quality characteristics of the laying hens.