Response of White Leghorn hens to certain herbs in diets on production performance, blood and egg cholesterol.

Abstract

White Leghorn (G and J strain) hens (n=108) of 55 weeks of age were randomly allocated to six dietary treatments, each with 18 birds in a completely randomized design. The dietary treatments consisted of one basal control (D1), supplemented with 0.5% arjuna bark powder (D2), 0.5% guggul resin powder (D3), 0.5% cinnamon bark powder (D4), 1% amla pulp powder (D5) and combination of 0.25% arjuna bark powder + 0.25% guggul resin powder + 0.25% cinnamon bark powder + 0.5% amla pulp powder (D6). The basal diet consisted of 2700 ME (kcal/kg) and 17% CP with 3% calcium and 0.4% available phosphorus. Dietary supplementation of various herbs, either alone or in combination to either normal or moulted hens did not exert any beneficial or detrimental effect on egg production, feed intake, FCR, body weight, nutrient utilization and egg quality traits of hens. Guggul alone or herbs in combination in diets of laying hens resulted in reduction in yolk cholesterol (16.1–19.5% and 13.9–18.2%, respectively) from 6th week onwards, while cinnamon, Arjuna and Amla (10.4–24.8%, 9.5–16.9% and 7.8–11.7% reduction, respectively) from 8th week onwards. Supplementation of any of the herbs, tested in the present experiment, caused significant decline in plasma cholesterol (10–25%) from 8 weeks onwards, and triglyceride and VLDL cholesterol levels at 10 week post-feeding. Liver cholesterol was reduced by 58 and 24% in hens fed amla and herbs in combination. Arjuna supplementation, however, increased liver cholesterol by 46.5% in comparison to un-supplemented group. Herb supplementation especially guggul increased the production cost and which varied with the cost of herb. Herb supplementation in the diet of laying hen did not influence the egg production performance but is helpful in lowering egg as well as blood cholesterol