Growth Performance and Egg Quality of Layers Fed Graded Levels of Palm Oil Supplemented with Vitamin E

Test diets (2-5) for layers were prepared using graded levels of 5, 8, 10 and 12% levels of inclusion of palm oil supplemented with 0.11, 0.17, 0.22 and 0.27g, respectively, of vitamin E/Kg of feed. The control diet for the layers had no palm oil and vitamin E inclusions. The experimental diets were used to feed 75 Nera brown layers that were 24wks old. The birds were distributed to the diets using completely randomized design. There were five treatments and each treatment had three replicates of five birds per replicate. The experiment lasted for 12 weeks. Results of the experiment showed that the average body weight significantly increased (P<0.05) for the birds on the test diets (2-5) than those on the control diet, birds on diet 2 (1.91 kg) weighed the heaviest. For the egg quality parameters, averages of egg weight, hen day egg production, albumen height, albumen width and index, shell thickness, yolk heighi varied significantly (P<0.05) among the treatments. In many yurd sticks the graded levels of palm oil inclusion supplemented with vitamin E enhanced performance und egg quality of layers'