Response of layer hens to different densities in cages and dietary energy levels

Harco Sex Link layers were used to evaluate the effects of three population densities in cages (DPJ; 600, 480, and 450 cm 2/hen) using cages of three sizes (30 x 40, 36 x 40, and 45 x 30 cm), in which were housed 2, 3, and 3 birds/cage, resulting in 15, 12, and 15 cm of lineal feeder space per bird, respectively; and two levels of dietary energy (NED; 2 600 and 2 800 kcal ME/kg) and their interaction, on feed consumption (ConA), laying percentage (PP), weight per egg (PH), and feed conversion (CA), in a 12-wk trial conducted at La Tuquerena Farm. A completely randomized design was used, with a factorial arrangement (3 x 2) and six replications per treatment. DPJ exerted effects (P < 0.05) on ConA and PP, the highest values (128.9 g/day and 65.4%) corresponding to the 600 cm2 density, whereas PH and CA were not affected. NED did not affect (P < 0.05) ConA (although trend was to higher consumption at the lower NED) nor PP and PH; the higher NED gave better (P < 0.05) efficiency in CA (expressed as 2.36 vs. 2.59 kg feed/dozen eggs or 1.91 vs. 1.96 kg/kg). The DPJ–NED interaction affected (P < 0.05) ConA, PP and CA, but not PH (treatment means of which varied only between 64.2 and 62.3 g). Highest ConA (130.4 g/day) and PP (64.6%) were obtained with the combination 600 cm 2/bird and 2 600 kcal/kg, lowest ConA (114.5 g) with 480–2 800 and lowest PP (52.1%) with 480–2 600. The best CA (kg/dozen) were 2.30 for 450–2 800 and 2.34 for 480–2 800 and the worst 2.67 (480–2 600) and 2.64 (450–2 600). The 2 600 energy level was satisfactory for use with the 600 cm 2/hen density, but at the higher densities its use resulted in lower PP and poorer CA than the 2 800 kcal/kg level

NM 22. Evaluation of coffee pulp in poultry: Digestibility and metabolizable energy

Forty-two roosters (Hy Line) of 32 weeks of age were used in a completely randomized design (6 treatments and 6 replicates) for the balance trials to estimate true dry matter (TDMD) and nitrogen digestibility (TND) and true nitrogen-corrected metabolizable energy (TMEn) values of diets based on ground corn containing coffee pulp silage (Trial 1) and coffee pulp silage with molasses (Trial 2) at levels of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 %, using the Sibbald method which include a period of 36 h fasting followed by forced feeding with 40 g of experimental diets and excrements were collected after 48 hours using plastic bags attached around the birds anus. The results showed that values of TDMD, TND and TMEn were reduced significantly (P<.01) when included CPE at levels over 5 % in the diets in the trials 1 and 2. Therefore higher levels at this not recommended in poultry feeding