EFFECT OF USING DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SUGAR BEET PULP SUPPLEMENTED WITH SWEET RED PEPPER IN THE DIETS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF GOLDEN MONTAZAH LAYING HENS

The current research aimed to study the effect of inclusion of different levels of sugar beet pulp (SBP) in the diets supplemented with sweet red pepper (SRP) or without supplementation on the performance of Golden Montazah (GM) laying hens. The experiment started at 197 days of age preceded by an adaptation period of 28 days and ended at 280 days. A total number of 360 hens at 29 weeks were randomly divided equally into 10 treatments (0.0, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0, and 20.0%SBP, each one without or with 0.1%paprika) groups (36 hens /3 replicates /12 hens each). All dietary treatments (SBP%×SRP%) improved egg weight (EW) over the period from 29–40 weeks. hens fed 20%SBP with 0.1%SRP had significantly higher EW and feed intake values during this period, but, hens fed control diet had significantly lower values. However, this effect was not statistically significant on egg number, egg production, feed conversion ratio, crude protein conversion and caloric efficiency ratio over the same period. Dietary treatments insignificantly affected albumen%, yolk%, yolk index%, shell%, shell thickness and HU, but, had significantly affected, shape index and yolk color (YC) at the mean of three periods (32, 36 and 40 weeks). Hens fed 0.0%SBP with 0.1%SRP and 20% SBP with 0.1%SRP had higher value of egg YC at the mean of three periods, but, hens fed 5% SBP with 0.0%SRP and 20%SBP with 0.0%SRP had lower value. Conclusion: The results showed that the most economically effective level of SBP was obtained from the control diet, followed by those fed diet containing 5% SBP. Depending on market conditions and financial circumstances, this can reach 15% with or without the addition of 0.1% SRP to GM laying hens' diets without any negative impact on performance.