Rice based distillers dried grains and solubles in duck egg production and its quality

A feeding trial was conducted with laying Khaki Campbell ducks with rice based distillers dried grain solubles (DDGS) for 20 weeks to study the laying performance and quality of eggs. Dried DDGS contains 64.41% crude protein and 4739.73 cal/g of gross energy. Soybean cake in the laying ration was replaced with DDGS at the levels of 0, 10, 25, 50 and 75% on iso-nitrogenous basis. Laying Khaki Campbell ducks of200 nos. were distributed in to five experimental groups with 10 ducks in four replicates each. After 20 weeks of laying study it was observed that total number of egg production was significantly increased (p<0.05) with the increased level of DDGS in the ration. The quality of eggs in different experimental group indicated that egg length (mm), egg width (mm) shape index (%) and egg weight (g) were not influence with the increasing levels of DDGS in the diet. The egg shell weight (g) and yolk weight followed the same trend. Although shell thickness increased with higher level of DDGS but it was not statistically significant. Higher values of Haugh unit, yolk index and albumin index were observed with higher levels of DDGS in the diet. Present investigation in laying ducks indicated that 75% replacement of soybean cake with DDGS have higher egg production and superior egg quality.