Department of Livestock Production and Management College of Animal Sciences, CCS Haryana Agricultural University Hissar-110 000, India.
*Reprint request: Dr. G.A. Bhat, Division of Livestock Production and Management, S.K. University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shuhama, Alusteng, Srinagar-190 006, India.
An experiment was undertaken on 210 White Leg Horn hens raised on deep litter and divided into five equal groups to study the effect of incorporating anti-stress agents viz vitamin C, vitamin E, sodium bicarbonate and ammonium chloride @ 0.8, 0.1, 15 and 10 g/kg feed respectively in the ration of WLH pullets during summer season (May to October) on, age at 50% production, percent hen day production, and egg weight. There was decrease (P<0.05) in age at 50% production which was 158.67, 160.00, 162.33, 165.00 days in ammonium chloride, vitamin C, sodium bicarbonate and vitamin E groups, respectively, as compared to 174.33 days in control. Incorporation of anti-stress agents resulted in improvement (P<0.05) in percent hen day egg production, being highest in vitamin C group (53.17%) followed by 40.85, 45.95 and 44.29 percent in vitamin E, ammonium chloride and sodium bicarbonate groups, respectively. The egg weight in the control group was lower (P<0.05) in the vitamin C group (50.92g) followed by 50.24, 50.22, 50.20 g in ammonium chloride, sodium bicarbonate and vitamin E groups, respectively. It could therefore be concluded that anti stress agents like vitamin C, vitamin E, sodium bicarbonate and ammonium chloride could be helpful in ameliorating the heat stress caused by high temperatures during summer season.
Pullets, Anti-stress agents, Egg production, Egg weight
