Vol. 12, Special Issue 9 (2023)

Author(s):
Tanay Ghosh, Hrishikesh Saikia, Subhash Ghune and Anil Kumar

Abstract:
The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of a mixture of herbal feed additives along with various levels of linseed oil on egg quality parameters in White Leghorn layers. A feeding trial was conducted for a period of 12 weeks on 120 numbers of 28-weeks old Leghorn layers and were randomly distributed into four treatment groups i.e. control T₁: fed basal diet; T₂: fed basal diet incorporated with 1 percent herbal feed mixture along with 1.5 percent linseed oil; T₃: fed basal diet incorporated with 1 percent herbal feed mixture along with 2 percent linseed oil and T₄: basal diet incorporated with 1 percent herbal feed mixture along with 2.5 percent linseed oil. Results showed no significant effect on egg shell quality parameters in terms of shape index, shell weight, shell weight percentage and shell thickness among treatment groups. Significantly (p<0.05) higher albumen height (mm) was observed in groups T₂ (7.07±0.14), T₃ (7.19±0.13) and T₄ (7.26±0.16) compared to group T₁ (6.54±0.13). Significantly (p<0.05) higher albumen weight (gm) was observed in groups T₂ (38.76±0.43) and T₃ (37.64±0.54) compared to group T₁ (34.44±0.48). Significantly (p<0.05) higher haugh unit was observed in groups T₃ (84.89±0.61) and T₄ (85.64±0.67) compared to group T₁ (81.16±0.70). The egg yolk weight, yolk index and yolk colour did not differ significantly among treatment groups. However, egg yolk cholesterol (mg/gm) was significantly (p<0.05) reduced in groups T₃ (12.48±0.29) and T₄ (12.45±0.61) compared to group T₁ (14.53±0.28). The egg yolk triglycerides (mg/g) also reduced significantly (p<0.05) in group T₃ (172.73±2.19) and group T₄ (169.25±1.56) compared to other two groups. In fatty acid profile i.e. linoleic, linolenic and arachidonic acid significantly (p<0.05) improved in groups T₂, T₃ and T₄ compared to group T₁. From the results obtained from the study it can be concluded that dietary supplementation of 1 percent herbal feed mixture in combination with 2 percent linseed oil improved egg quality with low cholesterol and triglycerides and improved egg fatty acid profile in White Leghorn laying chickens.