COMPARISON OF EGG PARAMETERS BETWEEN ISA BROWN AND HARCO BLACK LAYERS FED DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DIETARY ACETYLSALICYLIC ACID

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the egg parameters of layers fed different levels of Acetylsalicylic Acid (ASA). One hundred and ninety-two layers comprising 96 Harco Black and 96 Isa Brown breeds were assigned to four different treatment diets with levels of aspirin at 0.00%, 0.025%, 0.050% and 0.075% for diet 1(D1), diet 2 (D2), diet 3 (D3) and diet 4 (D4) respectively. Diet I with no inclusion of ASA served as the control. The birds in each treatment were replicated four times with 12 birds per replicate. All the birds were fed with these diets for 16 weeks. The data on body weight change, egg weight, mortality, egg mass index, hen-day and hen-housed production were recorded. The results showed that the final weight differed significantly between the two breeds and among the four treatment diets. The Isa Brown (IB) breed was heavier (1614.12+20.93g) than the Harco Black (HB) breed (1493.63±24.13g). The final weight of the birds increased with increase in the inclusion of ASA from 1481.25±50.13g in D1 to 1589.77+40.58g. In D4. The two breeds of the birds also differed significantly in terms of percentage mortality. The HB breed recorded 8.20% mortality while 4.30% was recorded for the IB breed. The egg mass index improved with the inclusion of ASA in the diets. Egg weight was heavier (57.66g) in HB than in IB (56.64g) while the administration of ASA improved the hen-day production from 67.39% in D1 to 72.85% in D3. The hen-day production was better improved in HB breed with dietary inclusion of ASA than in the IB breed. Better improvement in hen-housed production in HB was also recorded with dietary ASA which increased from 59.28% in D1 to 64.99% in D4 while it slid from 73.56% in D1 to 54.99% in D4 in the IB breed. In conclusion, the inclusion of ASA in the diets of laying chickens could be beneficial in terms of reduction of mortality rates and improvement of egg production parameters like egg mass index, percentage hen-day and hen-housed production.