Performance and Egg Quality Response of Laying Birds Placed on Sunflower (Tithonia Diversifolia), Catmint (Nepeta Racemosa ) and Bitterleaf (Vernonia Amygdalina) Aqueous Extracts

Abstract

The effect of aqueous sunflower leaf, catmint and bitter leaf extract on the performance and egg quality characteristics of laying birds were investigated. 162 Isa brown layers were involved in a Completely Randomized Design experiment. They were randomly allocated into six treatments. Each treatment was replicated thrice at 9 birds per replicate. Treatment 1 (control treatment) contained clean drinkable water with no aqueous extract added, Treatment 2 contained sunflower and bitter leaf extract administered at 15ml each per liter of drinking water, Treatment 3 contained sunflower and catmint leaf extract administered at 15ml each per liter of drinking water, Treatment 4 contained catmint and bitter leaf extract administered at 15ml each per liter of drinking water, Treatment 5 contained sunflower, catmint and bitter leaf extract administered at 10ml each per liter of drinking water and Treatment 6 contained sunflower, catmint and bitter leaf extract administered at 15ml each per liter of drinking water. Egg quality parameters measured include egg weight, egg length, yolk height, albumen weight, shell weight and shell thickness. Performance parameters measured include number of eggs produced daily as well as feed intake. The result obtained revealed that there was no significant difference in the egg quality parameters except in the performance characteristics where Hen Day Production, Feed/12 eggs and Feed/30 eggs showed significant difference (P>0.05)