T. A. MOHAMMED and S. A. MOHAMMED.

Institute of Animal Production, University of Khartoum, P. 0. Box 32, Khartoum North. Sudan.

SUMMARY

 A randomized block design experiment was conducted with the Objective of estimating the Calcium (Ca) requirements of commercial layer hens reared under tropical conditions. Five experimental diets containing 2.5, 2.8, 3.1, 3.5 and 3.9% (DM)’ Ca were formulated from local feed- stuff ingredients and offered ad-lib. to 7-month old Brown Highsex layers for a period of 10 weeks. The results indicated that increasing Ca content of diets significantly (P < 0.05) depressed feed consumption but improved (P < 0.05) egg production and feed utilization. It was observed that dietary Ca level had no effect on egg size but significantly (P < 0.05) improved egg shell weight and percent content of egg shell ash and Ca. It was concluded that increasing the Ca contents of the diets beyond 3.5% significantly (P < 0.05) depressed layers performance and had no effect on egg quality.

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