Assessment of Production Performance and Egg Quality of Commercial Laying Hens Fed Black Pepper and Red Pepper Additives

With the increasing demand for poultry products (meat and eggs) worldwide, poultry farmers want to improve the productivity of their flocks. This challenge has necessitated poultry nutritionists to offer specific nutritional strategies for improved productivity. Feed additives are recommended as one of such strategic options, and plant materials, otherwise known as phytogenics, are being extensively investigated. Therefore, the study's objective was to assess the production performance and egg quality of commercial laying hens fed black pepper and red pepper additives. A total of 210 commercial laying hens at 24 weeks of age were allotted into seven dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. Each treatment had thirty (30) birds each, replicated three times to give ten (10) birds per replicate in a study that lasted 12 weeks. The formulated diets included: a control diet with no additives; Treatments 2 and 3 had 1% and 1.5% black pepper powder; Treatments 4 and 5 had 1% and 1.5% red pepper powder; Treatment 6 had a mixture of 0.5% each of black pepper and red pepper, while treatment 7 had a mixture of 0.75% each of black pepper and red pepper. All data collected were subjected to a one-way analysis of variance using the general linear model procedure of SAS (2012). From the results obtained, the hen day production (%) was significantly highest in hens fed the diet with 1% red pepper (83.40%) and the least from hens in the control (65.56%). The control treatment also recorded the least performances in egg mass (48.76g/bird/day) and feed conversion ratios (2.58 and 2.30). Shell thickness was least (0.43mm) in hens fed the diet with 1.5% red pepper, while the thickest shell measurement of 0.50mm was recorded in Treatment 6. The highest Haugh unit of 103.77 was obtained from Treatment 4, while the least value of 96.66 was obtained from the control. Yolk colour was significantly improved in the treated groups as against what was obtained from the control group. From the results, it can be concluded that black pepper and red pepper, having improved production performance and some egg quality characteristics in the treated groups compared to the control hold great potential as dietary additives.