Effects of Dietary Inclusion of Olive Pulp Supplemented with Probiotics on Productive Performance, Egg Quality and Blood Parameters of Laying Hens

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate effects of diet inclusion of olive pulp supplemented by acommercial probiotic mixture (Yeasture®) including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Lactobacillus acidophilus and L. casei on performance of laying hens, egg quality traits and some blood parameters. A total number of 144 Lohmann LSL-Lite hens were randomly divided in 24 cages. Based on a 3×2 factorial arrangement of treatments, six iso-energetic and iso-nitrogenous experimental diets (ME =2720 Kcal/Kg and CP=15 g/Kg) including: I- corn-soybean meal-based control-1 diet (C1), II-corn-soybean meal-based control-2 diet (C2), and III- corn-soybean meal-based diet with 160 g/kg olive pulp (E), with or without probiotic Yeasture® (0.0 and 0.06 g/kg) were formulated. Hens in every randomly-selected four cages (replicates) allotted to feed on each of 6 experimental diets. Collected data of feed intake (FI), egg production (EP), egg mass (EM) and calculated feed conversion ratio (FCR) as well as egg quality traits during this 7-week trial period were analyzed based on completely randomized design using GLM procedure of SAS. Diet inclusion of olive pulp did not have significant effect on EP and EM and increased FI and FCR in compared to control groups. Dietary probiotic supplementation decreased EP and EM. Diet inclusion of olive pulp decreased Haugh unit, yolk color and shell weight in the first egg sampling (wk 3) in compared with control diets (P =.05). In second egg sampling (wk7), dietary supplementation by probiotic decreased Haugh unit. Diet inclusion of olive pulp significantly decreased yolk color in second egg sampling (wk7). Including olive pulp to diet significantly decreased serum levels of cholesterol and HDL. Dietary supplementation by probiotic significantly increased cholesterol, HDL and LDL in compared with control groups (P =.05). There was no the significant interaction between dietary olive pulp and probiotic on white blood cell counts, except for monocyte percentage (P=0.01). Dietary treatments did not have significant effect on body weight (BW) and excreta pH. From the results of the present study, it can be concluded that OP can be included in laying hens diets up to 16% with no adverse effect on performance; however, in terms of feed efficiency, Hugh unit, eggshell weight and yolk color, lower percentage of olive pulp in diets would be appreciated.