EFFECT OF DIETARY PROTEIN AND ENERGY LEVELS ON THE PERFORMANCES OF STARCROSS LAYERS

Two similar experiments were designed to evaluate the interaction of dietary CP and ME levels on the production performance parameters at the age between 155 and 300 days in Starcross layers. In both experiments, the feed intake and mortality decreased but the egg weight, body weight gain and feed conversion efficiency increased as the dietary CP and ME levels increased. The CP intake was highest CP and lowest ME levels. With the increasing CP and decreasing ME levels, the ME intake decreased significantly (Experiments 1 & 2). The $CP{\times}ME$ interactions were significant only on mean egg weight and egg production in Experiment 2. In both the experiments, the CP levels were positively correlated with CP intake, egg weight, body weight gain and egg production and negative correlation with feed intake, mortality percentage and ME intake. The ME levels showed negative correlation with feed intake, protein intake, mortality percentages and positive correlation with all other parameters in both experiments. The highest values were noted for all the parameters (except mortality percentages) in Experiment 1 than that recorded in Experiment 2.