Livestock Research
Livestock Research | Online ISSN 3068-4625
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Volume 2 Number 1 2024
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
Hatchery Eggshell Waste as a Feed-Grade Calcium Supplement for Dairy Cattle in Bangladesh: A Narrative Review of Nutritional Evidence, Processing Safety, and Circular-Economy Prospects
Nazmus Sakib1, Nazmul Huda1, Sadat Bin Rafique1, Md. Rakin Absar1, Tayeba Tabassum1, Abdullah Al Muntasir1, Md. Akteruzzaman2, Syed Sarwar Jahan1, Md. Shariful Islam1*
Livestock Research 2 (1) 1-17 https://doi.org/10.25163/livestock.2110838
Submitted: 13 September 2024 Revised: 06 November 2024 Accepted: 13 November 2024 Published: 15 November 2024
Abstract
Background: Bangladesh’s rapidly expanding poultry-hatchery sector generates an estimated 8,000–9,500 tonnes of eggshell waste annually — a stream currently diverted to composting or landfill rather than valorized within the agricultural input chain. Concurrently, the country’s smallholder-dominated dairy sector confronts a persistent calcium-supply deficit, with subclinical hypocalcaemia affecting approximately 30% of lactating cross-bred cows fed calcium-deficient, rice-straw-based roughage (Samad, 2020). Conventional mineral supplements — limestone, oyster shell, and dicalcium phosphate — are overwhelmingly imported, exposing smallholder dairy farmers to exchange-rate volatility and supply-chain disruption.
Objectives: This narrative review evaluates the feasibility of repurposing hatchery eggshell waste as a feed-grade calcium source for Bangladeshi dairy cattle by (i) quantifying the scale and current management of eggshell waste generation; (ii) synthesizing evidence on eggshell nutritional value, calcium bioavailability, processing requirements, and microbiological safety; and (iii) assessing the prospects, constraints, and priority research needs for adoption.
Methods: Literature was retrieved from PubMed/PMC, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Wiley Online Library, and Frontiers (January 2025 – June 2025). Grey literature was used exclusively to characterize industry-scale variables and is flagged explicitly throughout.
Results: Eggshell comprises approximately 95% calcium carbonate, yielding 25–30% elemental calcium on a dry-matter basis — comparable in bioavailability to mined limestone. A single Indonesian dairy-cattle feeding trial (n = 20; 4 cows per treatment group) reported higher milk yield and elevated milk calcium content with full eggshell-meal substitution, though the limited statistical power of that study warrants caution in generalizing its findings. A Bangladeshi turkey study confirmed Salmonella-negative status following heat treatment (Jahan et al., 2024), and multiple poultry feeding trials broadly corroborate nutritional equivalence to limestone.
Conclusions: Hatchery eggshell waste represents a technically plausible, economically promising, and environmentally favorable calcium source for Bangladeshi dairy cattle. Realization of this potential requires a well-powered, Bangladesh-specific cattle feeding trial, systematic heavy-metal and microbiological safety profiling across hatchery sources, and development of a formal national feed-ingredient standard.
Keywords: eggshell waste valorization; hatchery by-product; calcium supplementation; dairy cattle; subclinical hypocalcaemia; circular economy; Bangladesh
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