Effect of Sea Buckthorn Leaf Meal on Production Performance and Immunity in Coloured Breeder Chicken During Summer Season

The experiment was conducted to study the effect of sea buckthorn leaf meal (SBTLM) supplementation on egg production performances and immunity in ninety coloured Chabro breeder hens and 18 viable cocks in 1:5 sex ratio. The birds were randomly distributed into three dietary treatment groups: Control (Basal), standard breeder diet (BIS, 2007); basal+0.5% and basal+1.0% SBTLM. The average hen house egg production during 4-8, 8-12 and 0-12 week were significantly higher (P<0.05) in both the SBTLM supplemented group as compared to control group throughout the experimentation. No significant differences were observed among the three treatment groups in terms of humoral immune response viz. IgG in respect to 1% SRBC and mercaptoethanol sensitive IgM and likewise the cell mediated immune response (response to PHA-P) (Foot web index) of breeder birds at 12^th weeks of experimentation. However, the humoral as well as cell mediated immune responses were numerically better in both the sea buckthorn supplemented groups as compared to control group. Looking at the results of present investigations, it was observed that supplementation of sea buckthorn leaf meal results in better egg production and immunity for sustainable poultry production.