1National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bangalore-560 030, India
Department of Animal Nutrition, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal-637 002, India
*Corresponding author: Dr. D. Rajendran, E-mail: rajnutri@yahoo.com
Online published on 21 June, 2012.
An experiment was conducted for a period of 4 weeks to study the stress relieving effect of chromium supplementation on production performance and egg quality traits in Newcastle disease (ND) affected laying hens. Total of 3000 birds (White Leghorn chicken, BV 300 strain) of 33 weeks were divided into 6 groups (T1 to T6) having 10 replicates in each group and each replicate having 50 birds. The group: T1 was control, unaffected by Newcastle disease (ND), while all other groups (T2 to T6) were affected by ND and were recovering from the disease. T2 was not supplemented with chromium source and acted as negative control. T3, T4, T5 and T6 were supplemented with inorganic (chromium chloride), organochromium enriched yeast (OCEY), chromium yeast and chromium picolinate @ 200 ppb, respectively. The results revealed that weekly average egg production was maximum in laying hens of T5 followed by T6 and T4 groups during first week, T5 followed by T4 and T6 during second week while T4 followed by T5 and T6 during third and fourth week. Organic chromium supplementation (T4, T5 and T6) reduced the mortality significantly (P<0.01) in birds. The reduction in the mortality (%) compared to untreated T2 was about 58.06, 54.84 and 41.94% in laying hens of T4, T5 and T6 groups, respectively. No significant difference was observed in feed intake and egg shell thickness among the treatment groups. The egg shell weight was significantly high in the healthy birds (T1) than other treatment groups except for T4 group. Egg cholesterol levels were significantly (P< 0.05) reduced by supplementation of organic chromium. Increase in egg production in ND affected birds and decrease in egg yolk cholesterol by means of inclusion of organic chromium, in particular chromium yeast, organochromium enriched yeast and chromium picolinate supplementation to layer feed could be useful measure for laying hens and it ensures economical benefit.
Chromium yeast, Organochromium enriched yeast, Layer, Newcastle disease stress, Egg production
