• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.229-246
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• 1988

These studies were conducted to investigate the effects of dietary protein and metabolizable energy(ME) levels on layer performance during summer period. Total 480 ISA Brown egg-type layers ageing 49 weeks housed 2 birds per cage with 4 replictes of 20 birds were employed in this study. Mean environmental temperature over experimental period ranged from 22.3$^{\circ}$to 29.5$^{\circ}C$. The treatments consisted of dietary ME levels of 2500, 2700, 2900kcal/kg of diet containing 15% and 17% protein, respectively, to provide $3{\times}2$factorial design. As metabolizable energy level increased form 2500 to 2900 kcal/kg of diet, daily feed and protein intake, egg production. egg weight, egg mass decreased, but the reverse was true for the daily energy intake, energy requirement and feed costs per kg egg. Feed conversion(kg feed/kg egg) and viability were not affected by the dietary energy levels. However, there were no significant difference in egg production, protein requirement per kg egg, and egg weight between those hens fed 2500 kcal ME/kg diets and those fed 2700 kcal ME/kg diets, and no difference was found in egg weight between those fed 2700 kcal ME/kg and those fed 2900 kcal ME/kg, either. In addition, no specific trend was observed in protein requirement per egg by the different level of metabolizable energy in diets. On the other hand, as dietary protein level increased from 15 to 17%, daily protein in-take, egg production, egg weight, egg mass, and protein requirement and feed costs per kg egg increased, but feed and energy requirement per kg egg decreased, and no significant difference in the daily feed and energy intake and viability were observed among dietary protein levels. It was concluded that metabolizable energy level of 2500 kcal/kg of diet and 17% dietary protein level were considered to be adequate to support the optimum productivity of layers during summer period.