Abstract
Poultry Science Division, National Institute of Animal Science, RDA, Seonghwan 331-808, KoreaABSTRACT The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of herbal medication (HM) on laying performance, blood parameter, and immune response in laying hens. A total of 800 Hy-Line Brown laying hens of 60 weeks of age were randomly allotted to one of four dietary treatments with four replicates per treatment. Three additional diets were prepared by adding 0.5, 1.0 or 1.5 % of HM to the basal diet. Feeding trial lasted 7 weeks under 16L:8D lighting regimen. The diet and water were available ad libitum. Hen-day egg production in groups fed diets with 0.5% and 1.5% HM was significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of control. Feed conversion ratio in group fed diet with 0.5% HM showed the lowest value (P<0.05). Egg weight, feed intake, broken and shell-less egg production were not affected HM supplementation levels. Egg yolk color was significantly greater in all HM supplemented groups than basal treatment. However, eggshell strength, eggshell thickness, eggshell color, and Haugh units were not affected by HM supplementation level. There were no differences in leukocyte counts among the treatments. Plamsa IgM concentration was (P<0.05) higher in all HM treated groups. In conclusion, dietary HM improved egg production, and IgM of laying hens.(Key words : Glycyrrhiza uralensis, immune response, laying hens, laying performance, Lycii fructus)
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