Effect of Replacing Fish Meal by Soybean Meal on the Performance, Nutrient Utilization and Egg Quality of Khaki Campbell Ducks in Late Laying Phase

Background: Feed quality in terms of protein source plays an important role in achieving targeted production. The quality of fish meal available in market is of highly variable in nature. Hence, an attempt was made to see the response of laying ducks to diets where fish was replaced by soybean meal with supplementation of critical aminoacids i.e. lysine and methionine over and above the normal requirement. Methods: A 16 week biological trial consisting of 72 Khaki Campbell laying ducks (83 weeks) subjected to three treatments (T1-Control diet with fish meal, T2- fish meal totally replaced by soybean meal, T3-T2 + Supplementation of Lysine and Methionine distributed equally to 9 replications of 8 laying ducks each was conducted following completely randomised design to see the effect of treatments on the performance, nutrient digestibility/retention and egg quality in Khaki Campbell laying ducks. Standard analytical and statistical procedures were followed for proper interpretation of the data. Result: The egg production (nos and dozen) and DDEP percent were significantly (P less than 0.05) higher and FCR was significantly (P less than 0.05) better for ducks reared on T1 compared to other groups. The dry matter, organic matter and crude fibre digestibility was significantly (P less than 0.05) higher for ducks fed fish meal. However, the EE digestibility was significantly (P less than 0.05) higher for T3 group. The egg quality parameters were significantly higher for T3 group. It is concluded that the performance of Khaki Campbell laying ducks fed diet without fish meal was deteriorated but the egg quality was improved.