Effect of dietary untreated field pea (Pisum sativum L.) as substitute for soybean meal and enzymes supplementation on egg production and quality of laying hens

This study was designed to establish the effect on laying performance and egg quality resulting from substitution of soybean meal with untreated field pea (Pisum sativum L.) and enzyme supplementation in the diet of the entire cycle of laying hens. A total of 270 Lohmann Brown Classic pullets, 18 wks of age were randomly allocated to five experimental groups of 54, hens each. Each treatment had six replicates of 9 hens with similar levels of production at the beginning of the trial and fed 35 wks (between 20 and 54 wks of age). The dietary treatments were as follows: 1) corn/soybean meal diet (Soybean diet); 2) corn/pea diet (Pea diet); 3) Pea diet supplemented with Kemzyme HF (R) (100 mg/kg diet); 4) Pea diet supplemented with Allzyme (R) Vegpro (100 mg/kg diet); 5) Pea diet supplemented with enzyme combination [ Kemzyme HF (R) (50 mg/kg diet) plus Allzyme (R) Vegpro (50 mg/kg diet)]. The substitution of soybean meal with untreated pea did not significantly change the growth performance as well as feed intake and efficiency of layers; egg production rate and none of egg quality traits examined were influenced, except for yolk color that was higher in hens fed the pea diet. Our results show that the addition of Allzyme (R) Vegpro or the enzyme combination (Kemzyme HF (R) plus Allzyme (R) Vegpro), respectively to pea-based diets significantly improved laying performance; however, the effect of Kemzyme HF (R) was not statistically significant in pea-based diet. Egg quality of layers fed enzymes supplementation had no statistically significant difference with hens fed pea-based diet without enzyme or soybean meal diet.