Gross efficiency of protein and metabolisable energy utilization of sugarcane press residue incorporated in layer diets

Sugarcane press residue (SPR), a nonconventional feed ingredient is a soft, spongy, amorphous, dark brown to white material was fed to 32-week-old white-leghorn-layer at 0, 5, 10 and 15 per cent either in the soya-based or fish-based diets to form T1 to T8 diets, respectively. Each diet so formulated was offered to five-replicates of four laying-hens each constituting a total of one-sixty birds reared for 84-days. Results revealed that the cumulative efficiency of protein utilization values of layers fed different experimental diets were 29.36, 28.62, 27.20, 29.11, 27.90, 28.21, 28.02 and 25.95 in T₁ through T₈ groups, respectively. Likewise, efficiency of energy utilization values ranged non-significantly from 28.18 (T₁) to 24.84 (T₈). Whereas, average EPUand EEUvaluesdue tomain factors were found to bestatistically non-significant. It was concluded that SPR can be included up to 15% in soya and fish based layer diets for energy and protein utilization apart from inorganic-matter.