The Effects of Dietary Propionic Acid Supplementation for Laying Hens on Performance, Egg Quality Traits and Some Blood Parameters

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of four different levels (0, 100, 200, 300 ppm) of propionic acid supplementation into diets of laying hens on performance, egg quality and some blood parameters. The trial consisted of a total of 96, 28 wks old, Lohmann white layers were allocated randomly four experimental groups. During the study, each experimental group of six replicates of four birds was fed with four treatment diets. Results showed that supplementation of different levels propiyonic acid into layer diet linearly improved feed conversion ratio, and increased egg production. Egg quality traits such as shape index, albumen index, yolk index, shell strength, shell thickness, yolk color and Haugh unit were not affected by propiyonic acid supplementation into layer diet. Except for triglyceride, AST and P, other serum parameters such as cholesterol, glukoz, ALP, ALT and Ca did not affected by the propionic acid supplementation. Adding at different levels of propionic acid to diets of laying hens affected quadratically serum triglyceride, P and AST as cubically.