Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Herbal Calcium on Production, Egg Quality, Egg Biochemical Parameters and Cost of Economics of White Leghorn Layers

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the herbal calcium supplements in Commercial layers under cage and deep litter systems of rearing. For this purpose, 240 White Leghorn layers (Bovans) were distributed randomly in to 4 different treatments with 4 replicates having 15 birds in each replicate. The production performance and egg quality were evaluated from 54 to 61 week of age. The Basal Diet consist of corn and soybean meal was prepared as a control and fed to birds under cage (T1) and deep litter (T3) system. The remaining two experimental diets were supplemented with herbal calcium supplement (Ayucal D) @ 9 g/60 birds/day by mixing uniformly in feed for 10 days in every month and fed to birds under cage (T2) and deep litter system (T4). The results revealed that the Ayucal D supplementation improved (P<0.01) the egg production and egg mass in birds reared under deep litter and it was comparable with that of birds reared under cage system with or without supplementation of Ayucal D. The Ayucal D supplementation to layers reared under both the systems significantly (P<0.01) lowered the feed intake and feed efficiency. Ayucal D supplementation and systems of rearing did not influence the egg biochemical constituents and egg quality parameters. From the present study, it can be concluded that supplementation of Ayucal D to layer birds reared under cage and deep litter systems improved the production performance without affecting egg quality and biochemical parameters. Besides, Ayucal D supplementation increased net profit over control groups.