Evaluating Brassica napus and Brassica juncea meals with supplemental enzymes for use in laying hen diets: production performance and egg quality factors

Juncea meal (JM) has higher crude protein and energy and less fibre compared with canola meal (CM) potentially making it more suited for inclusion in laying hen diets. The objective of this study was to compare the inclusion of JM to CM and soybean meal (SBM) in diets of white-shell egg laying hens on production performance and egg quality characteristics. Ten diets were fed to 360 Lohmann LSL-Lite laying hens over four feeding phases during the 48 wk trial. Diets consisted of a SBM control, 10% or 20% CM (CM-10 or CM-20), and 10% or 20% JM (JM-10 or JM-20) with or without a phytase and multicarbohydrase enzyme cocktail. Juncea meal-20 (JM-20) reduced body weight (P > 0.05) compared with SBM by 122 g hen-1 but was not different from CM. Feed consumption, egg production, feed efficiency, and mortality were unaffected by meal or enzyme inclusion (P > 0.05). Feeding CM or JM did not result in any commercially important changes to egg quality, and enzyme inclusion had no effect. Up to 20% CM and JM could be included in laying hen diets without detrimental effects on production performance and egg quality characteristics. Enzyme inclusion did not improve performance of meal types.