EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF EGG-TYPE PULLETS FED SYNTHETIC AND PHYTOGENIC SOURCES OF VITAMINS DURING HOT-DRY SEASON

A 90 day feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the performance of layers fed crude sources of vitamins A, C and E during hot-dry season. The study was conducted to find a way of alleviating heat stress in egg-type pullets especially during hot-dry season in an extreme north-western (Sudan savannah) part of Nigeria. A total of sixty (60), twenty-one week old, point of lay Black Harco were randomly allotted into six treatments of 10 birds each and were housed singly in a battery cage using a completely randomized design. Six experimental diets were formulated in such a way that diet 1 contained no test ingredients, diets 2, 3, 4 and 5 contained 1% each of synthetic vitamin C, baobab pulp, amaranthus leaf meal and tiger nut seed meal respectively, while diet 6 contained a mixture of 0.3% each of baobab pulp, amaranthus leaf meal, and tiger nut seed meal. The experiment lasted for three months. At the end of the study, the performance characteristics of the birds fed diet 6 had the best egg weight, hen-day production and feed intake. The study showed that the use of the test ingredients posed no deleterious effects on the birds (no mortality), and for maximum production and reduction in the cost of alleviating heat stress in this part of Nigeria (Sokoto), diet 6 is the best option