Dietary ripe or unripe papaya (Carica papaya) peel powder improves egg quality in laying hens

The effects of stage of ripening and dietary concentration of papaya peel powder on egg production, egg quality and gut health of laying hens was investigated. Two levels (25 and 50 g/kg) of ripe and unripe papaya peel powder were fed each to 3 replicates containing 10 Shaver Brown hens in a completely randomized design. Stage of ripening or dietary concentration had no effects on feed intake (FI), hen-day production, egg weight, egg mass and feed conversion ratio. There were no dietary effects on egg shape index, surface area and shell thickness but papaya peel powder supplementation improved Haugh unit (HU) and yolk colour. Dietary concentration or stage of ripening of papaya peel meal had no effects on ileal Lactobacilli and E. coli counts. We concluded that at concentrations up to 50 g/kg, dietary papaya peel powder have no effects on egg production and gut health regardless of the stage of ripening but even 25 g/kg improves egg quality in terms of Haugh unit and yolk colour. These findings have practical implications in the South Pacific region where green papaya fruits are always wasted. More studies are needed on dietary concentrations that might improve egg performance and gut microbiota