Animal Production

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11888/3164

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Browsing Animal Production by Author "Hakam Ahmad M. Al-Bast"

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    The Effect of Force Molting Method on Post Molt Performance of Laying Hens
    (2011) Hakam Ahmad M. Al-Bast; Dr. Maen Samara
    This experiment was conducted at An- najah farm in Tulkarm to investigate the effect of force molting methods on post molt performance of laying hens, this investigation involved feeding rumen content (RC) and rumen content mixed with alfalfa,(RCAA), (50 :50 ) to determine their ability to induce molt. To achieve this ,85 Hi – line egg laying hens , 60 wk of age were exposed to one of the following molt treatments: treatment 1, full feed ( FF) non –molted control ; treatment 2, feed withdrawal ( FW) conventional molt ; treatment 3, rumen content ( RC) molt ; treatment 4, rumen content and alfalfa (50 : 50) molt, each treatment was divided into tow replicates and each replicate contains 11hens that was housed individually A CRD design was implemented in the experiment , the result of this study indicated that hens subject to feed withdrawal (FW) rumen content (RC) and rumen content mixed with alfalfa (RCAA) methods showed significantly greater, (P < 0.05) percentage of body weight loss, ( 32.66 , 31.17 ,and 34.33 % ) compared to those in the FF treatment . Organ weight loss occurs simultaneously with loss in body weight(BW) at the end of the experiment, no significant differences were noticed for hens in terms of feed intake (FI) or feed conversion ratio (FCR) in all treatments in post molt experimental period that lasts 56 days. FF hens had significantly lower, ( P < 0.05 ) hen – day egg production when compared with all other treatments after 8 weeks , also RCAA hens had numerically higher egg production than FW or RC hens . The egg weight showed no significant differences among treatments, but egg output for FF treatment has significantly lower than other treatments. Egg quality, ( shell , albumin and yolk weight ) were not influenced by the treatment , but numerically was in favor FF .The results of our experiment indicated that RC and RCAA represent a viable alternative to FW method for the successful induction of molt and retention of post molt performance.