Influence of Probiotics and Prebiotics Supplementation on Production Performance in Laying Hens

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplementing different levels of probiotics and prebiotics in the laying hens’ diet on their production performance and egg quality parameters during a period of 16 weeks. One hundred forty White Leghorn layers were randomly distributed into seven experimental groups having 4 replications of 5 birds in each and housed in individual cages from 22 to 38 weeks of age. The laying hens of control group (T1) were fed a basal diet formulated as per BIS (2007) standards. The layers of treatment groups T2, T3 and T4 were fed a basal diet supplemented with probiotics (containing 5×108 cfu/g of Lactobacillus fermentum, 1×109 cfu/g of Bacillus sp. and 1×109 cfu/g of Saccharomyces cerevisiae) at levels of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 g/kg feed, respectively, while laying hens in treatment groups T5, T6 and T7 were fed basal diet supplemented with prebiotics (mannano-oligosaccharide of Saccharomyces cell wall-47 g, formic acid-32 g, HSCAS-up to 1 kg) at levels of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 g/kg feed, respectively. The percent hen day production and egg mass production (g/d/h) increased significantly (P<0.05) in layers fed 1.0 and 2.0 g/kg feed of either probiotics or prebiotics as compared to layers of control group. Feed intake was not affected while feed conversion ratio (kg/dozen eggs and kg/kg egg mass) of layers fed 2 g/kg probiotic (2.82) and prebiotic (2.90) were better than the control group (3.13). Average egg weight increased (P<0.05) with the highest (2 g/kg feed) level of probiotics and prebiotics. Dry matter metabolizability and nitrogen retention values improved (P<0.05) in treatments T4 and T7 but no effect was observed for nitrogen corrected metabolizable energy and gross energy metabolizablity. Thus, the present study revealed that supplementation of probiotics and prebiotics @ 2g/kg feed in laying hens’ diet significantly (P<0.05) improved the egg and egg mass production, feed conversion ratio, egg weight and nutrient metabolizability without affecting feed intake.