Effect of probiotic supplementation to the diet on performance and egg quality of laying hens

Abstract

Probiotics are live microorganisms that provide many health benefits to the host when administered in sufficient amounts. The use of probiotics in poultry diets has steadily increased over the years as an alternative to antibiotics to avoid the use of antibiotics in the feed as a result of increasing demand. The objective of this study, determine the effect of different probiotic types on laying hen performance and egg quality. A total of 140 laying hens, aged 33 weeks of age, were involved in a 56-day long experiment. The study was conducted in 5 treatment groups, each with 7 replications, and were fed with five diets. The diets contained Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens at one colony forming unit (0.5 g/kg with 1x108 cfu/g), in addition to a control diet. Results indicated that initial body weight, final body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and damaged egg ratio were not significantly different among the groups (p>0.05). The addition of Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens to the laying hen diets had no significant effects on albumen and yolk index, shell breaking strength, shell weight, shell thickness, shell ratio, and egg yolk color characteristics (L* and b* values). However, the a* value and Haugh unit of yolk color characteristics significantly decreased compared to the control group (p<0.05; p<0.01). According to the results, it was concluded that the inclusion of Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens to the diets of laying hens did not result a significant change growth performance and egg quality parameters.