Volume 11, Issue 24, July - December 2025

Effect of partial replacement of Soya meal with Albizia lebbeck seed meal on the growth performance, egg quality and haemato-biochemical constituents of Nera black hens

Alagbe John Olujimi^1,2♦

¹Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Biochemistry, Gandhi College of Agriculture, Rajasthan, India
²Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Nutrition and Biochemistry, Sumitra Research Institute, Gujarat, India

^♦Corresponding author
Alagbe John Olujimi, Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Nutrition and Biochemistry, Sumitra Research Institute, Gujarat, India

ABSTRACT

This experiment was undertaken to examine the effect of partial replacement of Soya meal with Albizia lebbeck seed meal on the growth performance, egg quality and haemato-biochemical constituents of Nera black hens. Two hundred Nera black laying hens, 20 weeks of age was randomly assigned into four groups of 50 birds with five replicates, each replicate was further divided into 10 birds each. The experiment lasted for 60 days and the group consists of diet 1 (control): basal diet only, Albizia lebbeck seed meal was partially used to replace soya meal at 5 %, 10 % and 15 % in diet 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Feed and fresh water were made available at all times and a completely randomized experimental design was used. Experimental outcome revealed that feeding different levels of Albizia lebbeck seed meal increased (p˂0.05) body weight gain, feed consumption as well as feed conversion ratio. Similarly, feeding Albizia lebbeck seed meal enhanced (p˂0.05) total egg weight, hen day egg production, hen day housed production, egg width, egg length, shell weight, albumen weight, albumen height, yolk weight, yolk colour and haugh unit. Partial replacement of soya meal with Albizia lebbeck seed meal increased (p˂0.05) the concentration of hematocrit, haemoglobin, red blood cell, white blood cell, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, serum total protein, triglycerides and significantly decreased (p˂0.05) cholesterol concentration. The serum levels of alanine transaminase and aspartate aminotransferase were not influenced (p˃0.05) by the treatment. In conclusion, feeding different levels of Albizia lebbeck seed meal up to 15 % improved growth performance, egg qualities, egg production and blood parameters without causing any detrimental effect on the health status of birds. Therefore, a higher level of replacement is recommended for laying hens.

Keywords: Albizia lebbeck, growth, performance, egg, production, soya meal, blood

Discovery Agriculture, 2025, 11, e18da3161

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Published: 07 October 2025