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Livestock-Based Farming Systems, Renewable Resources and the Environment |
An experiment was conducted on a small household farm of Cantho City on the crossbred Chinese ducks (laying type) to evaluate the effect of using fresh Tra fish by-products as protein supplements to replace for soybean meal in diets of the reproductive performance of laying ducks. The ducks in the experiment was kept in housing confinement with access to the water surface of a fish pond for swimming and with biosecure controls applied to the system.
A total of 180 laying ducks from 29-41 weeks of age was used for the trial. The ducks were randomly allocated into three treatment groups, with three replicates. The ducks in these treatments were supplied three diets contained 17% protein, but with different protein supplement sources. The experimental treatments were: (1) Laying ducks were fed a diet with protein supplement only from soybean meal as a control diet (TF00), (2) Laying ducks were fed a diet contained fresh Tra fish by-product as a replacement for 50% protein supplement from soybean meal (TF50), and (3) Laying ducks were fed a diet contained completely protein supplement from Tra fish by-product (TF100). All the ducks of these treatments were fed ad-libitum.
The results obtained from the experiment show that average daily feed intake (DM) were 141, 119 and 98,1 g/duck (P<0.001) and egg yields produced for a 12-week period of the trial were 64.8, 54.8 and 31.5 eggs/bird (P<0.001) for the TF00, TF50 and TF100, respectively. Corresponding feed conversion ratios for every 10 eggs were 1.81, 1.8 and 2.59 (P<0.001). There were no significantly different on body weights, egg qualities between ducks fed with or without Tra fish by-product in diets. Use of Tra fish by-product as a replacement for 50% protein supplement of soybean meal in diets of laying ducks decreased feed costs up to 11% per egg.