Filardi et al., 2007. Ciência Anim. Bras., 8 (3): 397-405

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance, egg quality and production costs of commercial laying hens fed with rice meal and formulated based on total and digestible amino acids. During 5 periods of 28 days each, a total of 192 Lohmann LSL hens aged 25 weeks were distributed in a completely randomized experiment with a factorial scheme of 8 treatments and 3 replications of 8 birds each. The factorial scheme consisted of 2 amino acid recommendations (total and digestible) and 4 inclusion levels of rice meal (0, 5, 10 and 15%). The performance and egg quality were evaluated during 5 cycles of 28 days. Under the conditions of this experiment, the use of digestible amino acid values resulted to low performance and higher production cost in comparison with the total amino acid values. The diets formulated with different rice meal levels did not affect the performance and egg quality parameters evaluated. However, the use of rice meal in laying hen diets should be determined depending on the availability and cost. Over 6% of inclusion resulted to increased egg production costs.