Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Chromium Picolinate on Productive Performance, Egg Quality and Carcass Traits in Laying Turkeys

Abstract

This experiment investigated the effects of dietary chromium picolinate (CrP) on production performance, egg quality traits and carcass traits of laying turkey. Seventy-two (72) female turkeys (16 wks old) were randomly distributed to four dietary treatment groups for a period of 24 weeks. Each treatment comprised three replicates, each containing 6 hens. Three experimental diets were supplemented with 250, 500 and 750 μg CrP/kg (T2, T3 and T4 respectively) with basal diet and diet T1 was considered as control. All hens were provided feed and water ad libitum. Production performance in terms of age at sexual maturity did not differ significantly (P>0.05), whereas egg production and egg mass differ significantly (P 0.05), whereas the Haugh unit score and shell thickness were significantly higher (P<0.05) in T4 treated groups than the control (T1) and other two treatment groups (T2 and T3). Percentage of carcass traits did not differ significantly (P<0.05) except the percentage of bleeding loss, wings and giblets among the control and CrP treated groups. From this study, it can be concluded that higher levels of dietary CrP (750 μg CrP/kg diet) may be beneficial for production performance (egg production and egg mass), some egg quality traits (Haugh unit score and shell thickness) in laying turkeys whereas, no significant differences were observed in percentage of carcass traits except the percentage of bleeding loss, wings and giblets.