Effect of dietary canthaxanthin and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol supplementation on the performance of duck breeders under two different vitamin regimens

Table 2 Laying performance of duck breeders from 38 to 77 wk of age^d

Vitamin level	CX + 25-OH-D₃	Daily laying rate, %	Daily feed intake, g	Egg weight, g	Total egg mass, kg	Feed: egg, kg:kg	Cracked eggs, %	Pigmentation of males^e
Vitamin level	CX + 25-OH-D₃	Daily laying rate, %	Daily feed intake, g	Egg weight, g	Total egg mass, kg	Feed: egg, kg:kg	Cracked eggs, %	Bill	Shank
REGULAR	-	82.7	239	92.1	21.3	3.80	1.4^ab	7.6	10.4
REGULAR	+	81.2	236	91.6	20.8	3.82	1.3^b	10.7	14.7
HIGH	-	83.9	239	92.1	21.6	3.74	1.5^a	7.8	10.8
HIGH	+	82.6	237	92.5	21.4	3.74	1.1^c	11.0	14.9
SEM		0.7	1.0	0.2	0.2	0.03	0.04	0.5	0.6
P-value
Vitamin		0.373	0.831	0.216	0.324	0.297	0.305	0.065	0.062
CX + 25-OH-D₃		0.366	0.179	0.885	0.409	0.900	0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Vitamin × (CX + 25-OH-D₃)		0.946	0.737	0.168	0.763	0.821	0.038	0.794	0.419

^a-c Different superscripts in a row indicate differ significantly (P ≤ 0.05)
^d CX canthaxanthin, 25-OH-D ₃ 25-hydroxycholecalciferol
^e Mean of 7 times of color measure at wk 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32 and 40 of the trial

ISSN: 2049-1891