The Effect of (Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae) Culture Versus Flaovomycin Supplementation on Laying Hen Diets and Their Comparative Influence on The Late Stage Production Performance

The effect of yeast culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) supplementation on laying hen diets was tested against flavomycin supplementation during 12 weeks, using 112 Brown Bovans laying hens, 52 week-old, divided into 7 equal groups fed on a basal diet containing 18.8% crude protein and 2810 kcal/kg ME (me-tabolizable energy) feed. Three groups were supplemented with 3 different levels of commercial yeast cul-ture (1, 2 and 3 kg/ton) and 3 groups were supplemented with 3 different levels of flavomycin (50, 75 and 100 mg/ton). ncreased levels of yeast culture supplementation significantly decreased hen-day egg produc-tion (P < 0.05). Flavomycin supplementation showed the same result with the exception of the group that received 75 mg/ton which showed significant (P < 0.05) increase in hen-day egg production. Egg mass was significantly increased (P < 0.05) for the group receiving 75 mg flavomycin and significantly decreased in the group receiving 3 kg yeast culture. Both yeast culture and flavomycin supplementation significantly lowered (P < 0.05) feed intake as mg/hen/day. Feed conversion was improved significantly (P < 0.05) by the addition of 2 kg yeast culture and 75 mg flavomycin per ton feed. The addition of 50 mg flavomycin im-proved yolk percentage significantly (P < 0.05). The blood constituents showed no significant differences among treatments for TP, AL and GL (P > 0.05) AST, ALT and Glu values showed an increasing trend, with the highest significant values (P < 0.05) of AST and Glu for the supplementation level of 100 mg flavomy-cin. Higher level of flavomycin (100 mg/ton) had adverse effects on blood plasma biochemical profile, but had no significant effects on egg production (P > 0.05).