An experiment was conducted on commercial laying hens (BV - 300) to evaluate the effect of “Magacal”, a herbal product “Magacal” was supplemented @ 0.5 g/kg, 0.7 g/kg of ration deficient by 15% or 30% of calcium and phosphorus compared to the control. Study was also conducted to evaluate the effect of “Magacal” when added @0.5 g/kg to the control ration. Study revealed significant reduction in egg production, egg shell percentage, egg shell thickness, seruni calcium, serum phosphorus, bone calcium content and feed efficiency on 30% calcium and phosphorus deficient diet. However, significllnt difference was not observed in the serum magnesium and bone phosphorus levels. “Magacal” at both the levels of supplementation could counteract the above conditions resulting in optimum egg production, egg quality and feed efficiency which were not significantly different from the control. Improvement in the performance was noticed when “Magacal” was incorporated to the control diet. Data suggested that deficiency of calcium and phosphorus to the extent of 30% in the layer diet can be over come by 0.7 g of “Magacal”/kg of ration without affecting their performance.
Herbal feed supplement, performance, calcium metabolism, laying hens
