Egg shell quality in extreme summer: The effect of methionine hydroxyl analogue (MHA) and fishmeal in diet of laying hens

A feeding trial was conducted involving 45 weeks old laying hens to assess the effect of fish meal and methionine hydroxy analogue supplementation (0.3%) for 40 days in diet with adequate DL methionine (0.35%) on egg shell quality during extreme summer. Four dietary treatments were formulated viz. T₁ (control: without fish meal and MHA), T₂ (with 4% fish meal but no MHA), T₃ (with 4% fish meal and 0.3% MHA) and T₄ (without fish meal but with 0.3% MHA) in a 2 × 2 factorial design. The results indicated that MHA supplementation in diet improved the egg weight and egg shell quality, while fishmeal did not prove to be beneficial. Therefore, methionine hydroxy analogue (MHA) supplementation (0.3%) in diet with adequate methionine may be recommended to ameliorate the adverse effect on egg shell quality during summer months (in house temperature 36.5±2.2°C).