EFFECT OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION OF PROBIOTICS ON INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EGG QUALITY OF WHITE LEGHORN LAYERS

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to assess the three different types of multi strain probiotics (100 & 200 g/ton) in comparison to antibiotic (bacitracin methylene disalicylate) on performance of layers. For this purpose, 288 White Leghorn layers were distributed randomly in to 8 different treatments with 6 replicates having 6 birds/replicate. The production performance was evaluated from 22 to 37 week of age. The Basal Diet (T1, Control) consisted of corn and soybean meal. In the remaining experimental diets Basal Diet + 4×109 cfu/g of probiotic -1, (T2); Basal Diet + 8×109 cfu/g of probiotic - 1, (T3); Basal Diet + 4×109
cfu/g of probiotic - 2, (T4); Basal Diet + 8×109 cfu/g of probiotic - 2, (T5); Basal Diet + 4×109 cfu/g of probiotic - 3, (T6); Basal Diet + 8×109 cfu/g of probiotic 3, (T7); Basal Diet + 50 g/ton AGP (BMD) (T8) in diet. The results revealed that internal and external egg quality parameters of Haugh unit, yolk index, shell thickness, shell percentage and shell strength were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by supplementation of probiotics and BMD at different graded levels. Whereas albumen index, shell weight and density
were not influenced by all the dietary supplementation groups. From the present study, it can be concluded that multi strain probiotics can be safely used as an alternative to antibiotic (BMD) in commercial layers.