Utilization of sunflower seed in laying hen rations

The objective of this trial was to evaluate the effect of sunflower seed inclusion (0, 1.4, 2.8, 4.2 and 5.6%) in a laying hen diet containing corn, soybean meal, wheat meal and soybean oil as main ingredients on performance and egg quality. The evaluated variables were daily feed intake, average egg weight, feed conversion (kg.kg-1 and kg.dz-1), eggshell percentage, yolk color and Haugh unit. One hundred and sixty 25 week-old Lohmann laying hens were used in a completely randomized design with five treatments and four replications of eight birds per experimental unit. Four periods of 28 days were evaluated during 112 days. The inclusion of sunflower seed in the diet had no effect on production parameters during the experimental period. Thus, can be concluded that sunflower seed might be used at concentrations up to 5.6% in laying hen diets without affecting performance and egg quality