The faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is a potential source of proteins for poultry, mainly for laying hens whose protein requirements are lower than those of other birds such as growing broilers and turkeys. However, this feedstuff contains anti-nutritional factors, that is, vicine (V) and convicine (C) that are already known to reduce laying hen performance. The aim of the experiment reported here wa...

The aim of this study was to compare the performance of hens (feed intake, rate of lay, egg weight, and BW gain), egg quality and blood biochemistry (enzymes, electrolytes, proteins, and other plasma constituents) of laying hens fed diets containing hemp products. Forty-eight Lohmann LSL-Classic (white-egg layers; 19 wk of age) were individually caged and fed 1 of 6 wheat-barley-soybean-based d...

An experiment was conducted with 72 Bovans Brown laying hens to determine the effect of dietary crude glycerin on laying performance; egg quality; retention of N, Ca, and P; and metabolizability of energy. The dietary treatments consisted of a control corn-soybean diet containing 6% corn starch (17% CP, 2,775 kcal/kg of AME(n), 0.81% lysine, 0.36% methionine, 3.60% Ca, and 0.37% available P) an...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of cholestyramine and lovastatin, lipid-Iowering agents, upon egg quality, reproductive performance, plasma lipids and egg yolk cholesterol levels of Shaver laying hens. Twenty-sixweeks-old hens were fed basal diet without animal products containing 0.2% cholestyramine (COLl), 0.3% cholestyramine (COL2) or 0.005% lovastatin (LOV) for 6 weeks....

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) and chromium (chromium picolinate, Cr Pic) on egg production, some egg characteristics, and digestibility of nutrients in laying hens (Hy-Line) reared under a low ambient temperature (6.2°C). Two hundred and ten laying hens (32 week-old) were divided into seven groups, 30 hens per group. The treatment groups wer...

The effects of dietary supplemental vitamin E (VE) and chromium (Cr) on egg production (EP), egg quality, serum concentrations of Cr and insulin and activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) were evaluated in Lohmann LSL-Lite laying hens reared under thermoneutral or heat stress (HS) conditions. A total of 144 laying hens were distributed in 24 cages and assigned to feed four diets including ...

In this experiment the effects of supplementation of the diet of laying hens with sodium selenite (SS) or selenized yeast (SY) on quality of eggs were studied. The chickens of Shaver Starcross hybrid were randomly divided at the day of hatching into 4 groups (n=12 in each group). The birds were fed from Day 1 of life till 9 months of age with diets differing in amounts and/or forms of selenium....

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of various levels of dietary black cumin seed on egg production, egg weight, feed conversion ratio, egg shell quality, and egg yolk cholesterol. In this study, eighty 27-wk-old laying hens (Hyline-5 White) were randomly assigned into 4 groups with 4 replicates of 5 birds each (20 laying hens per group) and fed diets supplemented with 1, 2...

1. The aim of this study was to evaluate the tolerance of laying hens for an excessive L-valine (L-val) supply on laying performance, egg quality, serum free amino acids, immune function and antioxidant enzyme activities of laying hens. 2. A total of 720 HyLine Brown hens were allocated to 5 dietary treatment groups, each of which included 6 replicates of 24 hens, from 40 to 47 weeks of age. Gr...