A.Riasi, H. Kermanshahi and A. H. Mahdavi

(Journal of Medicinal Plants Research. 6 (11): 2141-2145)

Abstract

 This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of turmeric rhizome powder (TRP) on production performance, egg quality and some serum metabolites of older laying hens. A total of 240 hens (Hy-Line W-36) in their second laying cycle were randomly assigned to 5 dietary treatments (basal diet supplemented with 0.0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 g kg-1 TRP) with 12 replicates and 4 birds each. Results showed that 2 g kg-1 of TRP decreased (P<0.05) the feed conversion ratio (FCR). Adding TRP to the diet had no significant effect on egg specific gravity, egg shell thickness, egg shell weight and egg shell weight to egg weight ratio. However, the supplementation increased (P<0.05) yolk color fan value after 4 weeks. The diets supplemented with 0.5 to 2 g kg-1 of TRP markedly decreased (P<0.05) serum triglyceride, total and LDL-cholesterol just two weeks after starting the experiment. It was concluded that TRP, at the level of 2 g kg-1, had strong potential for changing the serum lipid profile and improvement of FCR in older laying hens.

Key words: Turmeric, egg quality, blood metabolites, production performance, laying hens