This experimentwas conducted to evaluate the effect of including defatted corn germ meal indiets for laying hens. It was assigned two hundred and forty laying hens toa randomized design, with six diets and five replicates of eight hens per diet.Experimental diets were formulated by inclusion of defatted corn germ meal at0, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30% level. The period experiment was carried out for four28-day cycles and performance (feed intake, egg production, egg weight, eggmass and feed conversion) and the egg quality (egg specific gravity, yolk color,yolk and albumen percentages, shell percentages, shell thickness and Haugh unity)were the evaluated parameters. Negative linear effect was observed for feedintake and yolk pigmentation by increasingly including defatted corn germ mealin diets for laying hens. Quadratic effect of defatted corn germ meal for feedconversion was also observed. No statistical differences were observed for anyother parameters. Defatted corn germ meal can be included at 21.2% in layinghens diets.
