Evaluating the Effects of Salicornia Extract on Performance, Egg Quality and Blood Profile of Laying Hens

摘要

The current experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of adding Salicornia extract to the drinking water on the performance, egg quality, and blood profile of laying hens. A total of 216 Hy-Line Brown laying hens at 40 weeks of age were used ina 10-week experiment. The birds were allotted into three experimental treatments with three replications per treatment and 24 birds per replication. The treatments were CON (basal diet), Tl (1 cc of Salicornia extract per liter of drinking water), and T2 (5 cc of Salicornia extract per liter of drinking water). The collected data were analyzed using the SAS package program. The results indicated that addition of Salicornia extract to the drinking water of laying hens did not cause any negative effectson the performance, egg quality, or blood profile. Compared to the control treatment, the treatments with Salicornia extract remarkably increased egg production (PO.05) in the last week of the study, improved egg shell thickness and significantly reducedthe egg breaking rate (P<0.05). The results of this study showed that the addition of Salicornia extract improved egg shell quality; thus, Salicornia extract can decrease the egg breaking rate and increase production on commercial farms.