Effect of Dietary Basil Essential Oil Supplementation on Performance and Egg Quality of Laying Hens
Keywords:
egg characteristics, egg yield, feed ingredient, Ocimum basilicum.Abstract
This study aimed at investigating the effect of dietary supplementation with basil essential oil (BEO, Ocimum basilicum L.) on laying performance and egg quality of laying hens. A total of 30 ISA Brown laying hens, 25 weeks of age, were allocated to three experimental groups/treatments, with 10 hens per group. They were housed in 5 cages (replicates) per treatment, with 2 hens per cage, and were fed a fixed amount of feed (mixed-form concentrated feed mixture, 120 g/hen/day). Basil essential oil (BEO) was added to the feed at inclusion levels of 0, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg for treatments BEO0 (control), BEO1000, and BEO2000, respectively. The trial lasted 8 weeks (56 days). Across the experimental period, basil essential oil did not affect feed intake, egg production (0.953 eggs/hen/day), abnormal egg production, egg weight, egg mass, or feed conversion (2.10 g feed/g egg mass) (P>0.05). However, higher dietary levels up to 2000 mg/kg reduced shell weight (6.23 g vs. 5.85 g), shell thickness (0.39 mm vs. 0.35 mm), yolk diameter, and albumen diameter (P<0.05), while improving, albumen index (16.14 vs. 19.84, P<0.001), and Haugh units (104.29 vs. 110.46, P=0.001). Other egg quality characteristics were not affected (P>0.05).
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