Wheat bran in growing phase laying hens feeding

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of the wheat bran (WB) in the ration on egg brown chicken (Lohmann Brown) performance in the growing phase 1 (7 to 19 week of age) and growing phase 2 (15 to 19 week of age) and its residual effects on initial egg production. One hundred-sixty chickens were allotted to a completely randomized design with four level of WB in the ration: 0 (control), 10, 20 and 30%, that resulted in four treatments, with five replicates of eight birds in the growing phase 1. At the 14(th) week, the birds were transferred to galvanized wire cages and reallocated in six replicates of six birds each. A total of 144 birds were used and, randomly, four birds per treatment were discarding per treatment, constituting the growing phase 2. The addition of the WB linearly decreased the final body weight and the weight gain, resulting in decreasing of 1.15 g and 0.03g, respectively for each 1% of WB inclusion in the ration. Water intake show a quadratic effect and increased in absolute values with the addition of WB from 0 to 30%. The birds age at the first egg production and egg weight increased 0.6 day and 0.22 g, respectively for each 1% of WB in the ration. The inclusion of WB reduces chickens growth rate, delays posture starting and improves egg initial weight when compared to corn and soybean meal based diets.