Abstract:
Objective: The present is study was conducted to determine the effect of feeding whole-in-shell peanuts or high-oleic peanuts to laying hens on ileal nutrient digestibility. Materials and Methods: A total of 16 birds per treatment were utilized for 6 weeks with ileal and fecal content being collected at trial termination. Apparent metabolizable energy corrected for nitrogen, apparent nitrogen retention, and apparent protein and fat digestibility were examined. Results: There were no significant differences in egg production, feed intake, or feed conversion between treatments. Apparent metabolizable energy and the apparent nitrogen retention was significantly lower in diets containing whole in shell peanuts than the other two treatment diets. Apparent fat digestibility was significantly higher for the treatment with whole in shell peanuts than the other diets, and the high oleic peanut containing diet was significantly higher than the control. Apparent protein digestibility was greater for control diet than the other treatments and the diet containing whole in shell peanuts had significantly lower protein digestibility compared to the diet with high oleic peanuts in it. With the apparent metabolizable energy and the apparent nitrogen retention for high oleic peanut containing diet being statistically the same as the control diet results could indicate that these hens can use the energy and nitrogen for their production. Conclusion: Results indicate that 8% inclusion of high oleic peanuts in diet could be beneficial however feeding whole in shell peanuts may have poorer digestibility results, but not reduce production performance. Both high oleic and whole in shell peanuts could be good alternative feed ingredients.