20579

Influence of Dietary Zeolite Supplementation on the Performance and Egg Quality of Laying Hens Fed Varying Levels of Calcium and Nonphytate Phosphorus

Nassiri Moghaddam H نويسنده , Jahanian R نويسنده , Jahanian Najafabadi H نويسنده , Madaeni M.M نويسنده

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Natural zeolites have been shown to influence calcium and phosphorus utilization in laying hens. A 4x2x2 factorial arrangement of treatments was used to investigate the effects of dietary inclusion of zeolite (0, 1.5, 3 and 4.5% of diet) into the diets with sufficient or deficient Ca (3.26 and 2.45%) and non-phytate P (0.25 and 0.19%) contents on egg performance and egg quality parameters of 28 weeks-old Hy-Line (W-36) Leghorn hens. The trial lasted 98 days (2 weeks adaptation and 12 weeks recording periods), when the hens were 42 weeks-old. Significant dietary effects of feeding zeolite were observed for hen-day egg production, egg mass, egg weight, Haugh score and shell thickness at the initial 6 weeks of recording period, while dietary zeolite supplementation tended to/or had no significant effects on studied parameters at the second 6 weeks of experimental period. Dietary added zeolite caused a significant increases in egg weight (p<0.05), egg production and egg mass (p