EFFECT OF NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC FEED ADDITIVES ON LAYING PERFORMANCE OF LAYERS AT EARLY AND MID LAYING PHASE

Abstract

A total of 240 point of cage (12 weeks old) Isa brown pullets were divided into 5 treatments in a completely randomized design, and each treatment was further sub-grouped into 4 replicates consisting of 12 birds. The experiment lasted for 8 weeks. The dietary treatments were; (T1) control, basal diet + garlic powder (3g/kg feed) (T2), basal diet + symbiotic powder (0.25g/kg feed) (T3), basal diet + organic acidifier (1g/kg feed) (T4), basal diet + synthetic antibiotic (T5). Data on Age at first lay and Body weight of hen at first lay were obtained. The Henday, Egg mass, and Feed per kilogram egg were calculated. During the early laying phase (18-30 weeks), hens in treatments T4 (96.23g) and T5 (97.50g) showed significantly lower feed intake (p<0.05) compared to T1 (99.08g), which had the highest feed intake. Additionally, T3 (43.65g) produced the heaviest first eggs, while T5 (37.63g) produced the smallest. The average egg weight of T2 (47.11g) was significantly higher (p<0.05) than T4 (50.46g). However, during the mid-laying phase (30-42 weeks), no significant differences (p>0.05) were observed in the laying performance parameters. In conclusion, T2 recorded the best egg weight of the dietary groups while T4 had the least egg weight.