Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• S.M. Mehdizadeh ¹
• A. Zarei ²
• H. Lotfollahin ¹
• F. Mirzaei ¹
• M.H. Lebaschi ³
• M. Haji Mohammadi ²

¹ Animal Sciences Research Institute of Iran, Karaj, Iran

² Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

³ Research Institute of Forest and Rangelands, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

This study was carried out using a completely randomized design to evaluate the effects of different levels of dietary inclusions of Aleo vera gel, probiotics and antibiotic on performance, immune response and egg qualitative traits in 288 commercial laying hens (Hy – line) at the age of 29 weeks for 84 days. Hens were divided into six treatments and 4 replicates with 12 birds each and were offered standard feed ration with free water. The treatments were as follows:
T₁= Control groups (without feed additive), T₂= T₁+ 80mg antibiotics/kg feed,
T₃= T₁+ Aleovera gel 1.5%/kg feed, T₄= T₁+ Aleovera gel 3%/kg feed, T₅=T₁+ probiotics 0.05%/kg feed and T₆= T₁+ probiotics 0.1%/kg feed. Results showed that, Aleovera gel had significant effects on egg production, feed efficiency  and egg mass as compared to control groups (p<0.05), but the highest feed efficiency was belonged to probiotics treatments compared to the rest (p<0.05). No significant difference was observed in egg qualitative traits like hugh unit, yolk coloration, egg specific gravity, and egg shell strength between experimental diets and control group (p<0.05). Experimental diet containing 1% probiotic caused a reduction in blood cholesterol as compared to other experimental groups (p<0.05). Diet supplemented by inclusions of probiotic at 0.1%/kg feed had significant effect on IgM and IgG level, antibody titre against Newcastle disease virus and  antibody titre against sheep red blood cell (p<0.05). Finally, probiotic treatments performed well with excellent results on antibody titre against sheep red blood cell as compared to control and other related treatments throughout the experimental period (p<0.05). Aleo vera treatments performed well with excellent results on antibody titre against Newcastle disease virus as compared to control and other related treatments throughout the experimental period (p<0.05). Therefore, it is concluded that the application of Aleo Vera product could improve the performance of the laying hens and consequently increases the economic profit.

Keywords

• Virginamycin
• biomin imbo
• Immune response
• egg quantitative traits
• Aloe vera