International Journal of Poultry Science

Objective: An experiment was carried out in Maradi (Niger) at CERRA (Regional Agricultural Research Center), to evaluate the effect of roasted pods of Faidherbia albida on the egg quality parameters of Isa Brown laying hens. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 21-week-old hens were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments and four replicates per treatment. The hens were housed in a 5 m×10 m building with 10 hens per repetition in 1.71 m 2 blocks with ventilation and natural lighting. The ground was covered with peanut shells. Apart from the control feed (F0), the experimental foods successively contained 5, 10 and 15% crushed pods of Faidherbia albida roasted at 110EC. The feed was distributed over a period of three months. Every 2 weeks, all the eggs of the each day were collected in batches and weighed at 6 p.m. using an electronic scale (500 g) with a precision of 0.1 g. Two eggs of the day per repetition were taken at random for the assessment of egg quality, making forty eggs in total per weighing. All variables were analyzed with R software version 4.2.2 using multivariate analysis of variance (one way-ANOVA). Results: The incorporation of Faidherbia albida into chicken feed has been shown to be beneficial for egg production. And the best incorporation rate of roasted Faidherbia albida pods was 10%. Conclusion: The incorporation of roasted Faidherbia albida pods into the diet of layers had no negative effect on the egg quality parameters.