Effect of soybean meal substitution by different concentrations of sunflower meal on egg quality traits of white and coloured dwarf dam lines.

1. The effect of soybean meal substitution by different concentrations of sunflower meal on egg quality traits of white and coloured dwarf dam lines was investigated. 2. A total of 144 dwarf hens (38 weeks of age) from the same hatch were randomly divided into 12 groups of 12 birds (4 dietary treatments × 3 replicates). 3. A 2 × 4 factorial design was used to study the effect of 2 lines (Factor A) and substitution of soybean meal (SBM) with 4 concentrations (0, 10, 15 and 20%) of sunflower meal (SFM) [Factor B] on egg quality traits of dwarf dam line hens. 4. All the diets were designed to be isocaloric (11⋅3 MJ ME/kg) and isonitrogenous (180 g/kg crude protein) The duration of the experiment was 12 weeks. 5. Analysis of variance indicated a highly significant line effect. There were non-significant effects of substitution of soybean meal with different concentrations of sunflower meal on egg quality traits except for Haugh unit. 6. White plumaged dwarf broiler breeder dam line produced significantly fewer, but larger, eggs than coloured dwarf dam line hens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]