LAYING PERFORMANCE, HEALTH STATUS and SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL TRAITS of MANDURAH LAYING CHICKENS AFFECTED BY THE ADDITION OF DIFFERENT LEVELS of ANISE AND CARAWAY SEED POWDER

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of varying levels of Anise and Caraway seeds powder on laying performance, some blood constituents, egg quality traits, yolk cholesterol content, immunity response and total count aerobic bacteria of Mandurah laying chicken. For this purpose, a total number of 140 Mandurah laying chickensat 26 weeks of age were used in this experiment having a completely randomized design, with 7 equal treatment groups, which replicated 4 times with 5 hens per replicate. Each bird was housed in individual wire cage measuring (50 × 50 × 45Cm2), where each bird in each cage allowing 510 Cm2 space/hen). A basal control diet was formulated and supplemented with 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 % Anise and 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 % Caraway seeds in powder form. Birds were fed on isocaloric (2751 Kcal ME /Kg) and isonitrogenous (16.14% CP) diets. Results showed that laying performance significantly (P<0.05) improved when inclusion Anise and Caraway seeds powder compared with the control group. However, it was clearly observed that plasma lipids were significantly reduced (P <0.05) by supplementing diets with different levels of anise and caraway seeds. In the same trend, the addition of Anise and Caraway seeds powder led to a clear and significant decrease in egg yolk and blood cholesterol compared with the control group (P<0.05). However, Anise and Caraway seed powder incorporation caused positive effects on the parameters related to immune response and overall total antioxidant capacity (TAC) compared with the control group. While, total count aerobic bacteria significantly (P < 0.05) decreased for birds fed diets inclusion Anise and Caraway seeds powder as compared with the control group. Conclusively, Anise and Caraway seeds powder can be included in the diet of laying hens as a safe and effective feed additive to improve laying performance and reduce total blood lipids and thus reduce cholesterol content in egg yolk.