Performance of Keystone Golden Layers Maintained on Commercial Diet Supplemented with Probiotics

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of adding various levels of probiotics to laying hen's diets on their growth and laying performance. One hundred and twenty Keystone Golden layers of twenty-six wks old were randomly assigned to three groups forty birds of each, viz- Control group maintained on basal ration, Group T₁ maintained on (basal ration + 0.01% probiotics) and Group T₂ maintained on (basal ration +0.02% probiotics) with two replicates of twenty birds each. Supplementation of probiotics significantly (p<0.05) increases egg production and also decreased feed conversion ratio compared to control group. But incorporation of probiotics had no significant effect (p>0.05) on feed consumption and egg weight. The value on egg quality measures such as shape index, yolk index, haugh unit and shell thickness shows slight improvement in probiotics supplemented group. In general, considering approximately 130 g feed intake per day, it was concluded that the group supplemented 0.01% probiotcs showed best performance.