PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF LAYER CHICKENS FED DIETARY LEVELS OF SORGHUM ICSV400 VARIETY

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INTRODUCTION
Animals eat to acquire the energy and building materials that they need to live and grow. For maximum performance and good health, poultry need a steady supply of energy, protein, essential amino acids, fats and oils, minerals and vitamins and most importantly water (Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], 2016).
Poultry require the correct balance of these classes of nutrients for optimum growth, maintenance, reproduction and production. Poultry convert feed into food products quickly and efficiently and this high rate of productivity results in relatively high nutrient needs (Mahmoud and Kirk, 2014).
Poultry require the presence of at least 38 nutrients in their diets in appropriate concentrations and balance to perform optimally (Steve and Bruce, 2016). Therefore in considering any material as a component of poultry feeds, its nutritive value, availability, price and ease of processing should be considered. Many feed ingredients of both plant and animal origins have been used by many researchers to meet the bird's requirements with the view of minimizing cost of production and improving or at least maintaining performance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The research was conducted at the poultry section of Teaching and Research Farm, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Bauchi State, Nigeria. The study used 400 Shika brown points of lay pullets allotted to five (5) treatments which were replicated four (4) times each with 20 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design (CRD). After flushing for seven (7) days using the experimental diets (17%CP), initial weights of the birds in each replicate were recorded. Records of feed intake, number of eggs laid with egg mass was taken on daily basis. The percent and proximate compositions of the experimental diets are presented in Table 1.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Reproductive Performance of Layer Chickens Fed Dietary Levels of Sorghum ICSV400
The initial weights of layers used in the experiment were similar statistically and ranged from 1.65-1.74 kg. This is within the range given by poultry CRC (2014) that at 18-20 weeks of age layers should weigh 1.68-1.72 kg. Daily feed intake (DFI) was significantly affected by the dietary treatments with the values varying between 111.00 and 123.00 g. The values obtained were within the range (120-150 g) given by Olomu (1995). Feed consumption and number of eggs laid increased with the increase in levels of sorghum variety ICSV400 ( 2). As sorghum is generally lower in metabolizable energy (ME) than maize, the ME decreases as the inclusion levels increased and the birds tend to eat more to meet their energy requirement. This pattern is similar to the report of Salissou (2009) that feed intake and egg production tend to be greater in layers fed sorghum based diets. This however differ from the report of Prochaska et al. (1996) who found similar feed consumption among layers fed sorghum based diets.

Cost-Benefit of Egg Production Using Diets Containing Sorghum ICSV400 Variety
The highest percent hen day production was observed in birds on diet 5 (100% ICSV400) which was significantly different from the remaining diets. This finding is not in conformity with the findings of Narkhede et al. (1981), Thakur et al. (1985) and Rama Rao et al. (1995) that egg production remained unaffected with sorghum in diet. In those experiments, sorghum was used at a single level to replace maize part per part. However, the result obtained in this research agreed with the reports of Gowda et al. (1984) that egg production did not decrease when layers were fed diets with sorghum at 32 to 50 % of their diets or when sorghum was the sole cereal in the diet (Ambula et al., 2003;and Parthasarathy et al., 2005). Similarly, this result is close to the findings of Issa et al. (2007) that 57 % egg production for layers fed sorghum compared to 47% from birds fed a corn-based diet, but is higher than that of Ezeogwu et al. (2003) for layers fed graded levels of garcinia kola seed meal. Henhouse percent egg production (HHPP) was also better on diet 5 (100 % ICSV400) and significantly (P<0.001) differ with the rest of the 4 diets. This may be attributed to the higher feed intake experienced on the diet and the result is also better than some of the reported works like Isika et al. (2006) who fed layers with palm oil and animal fats and found 67.8-73.3 % as HHPP.
Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was better (1.71) on diet 1 (control) and the lowest on diet 5 (100% ICSV400) which differ significantly (P<0.01) among the 5 treatments. This result did not agree with the reports of Salissou (2009) of non-significant differences in average egg weight and feed conversion ratio among birds fed corn and sorghum based diets and that of Narkhede et al. (1981); Thakur et al. (1985) and Rama Rao et al. (1995) of non-significant effect in FCR by including sorghum in the diets of layers. The mortality of 5 birds obtained during the period of the research was within the range (20-25 % per year) reported by FAO (1997). Total feed intake increased with increased levels of sorghum in the diets however all the economic parameters were better as the level of inclusion of the test material (Sorghum ICSV400 Variety) increases in the diets. The economics of layer performance using Sorghum ICSV400 Variety is presented in Table 3.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The study concluded that ICSV400 sorghum is suitable and safe as an energy source in layer diets and can completely (100%) replace maize without negative effects on any of the performance parameters. The study recommended ICSV400 as energy source in the diets of layer chickens and as it confers more economic advantage than the conventional maize.