title: The effect of dietary supplementation of salts of organic acid on production performance of laying hens.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplementing different levels of salts of organic acid in the laying hen's diet on their production performance and egg quality parameters during a period of 16-week.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 140 white leghorn laying hens at 24 weeks of age were randomly distributed to seven dietary treatment groups, i.e. T1(control), T2(0.5% sodium-butyrate), T3(1.0% sodium-butyrate),T4(1.5% sodium-butyrate), T5(0.5% calcium-propionate), T6(1.0% calcium-propionate) and T7(1.5% calcium-propionate) consisting of 5 replications of 4 birds each in each treatment and housed in individual cages from 24 to 40 weeks of age. Feed intake, percent hen-day egg production, egg weight, egg mass production, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and economics of supplementation of salts of organic acids in layers' ration were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The dietary supplementation of salts of organic acids did not significantly affect the feed intake (g/day/hen) and body weight gain (g). Different levels of supplementation significantly (p<0.05) improved production performance (percent hen-day egg production and egg mass production) as compared to control group. FCR in terms of feed intake (kg) per dozen eggs was lowest (1.83±0.05) in T4and feed intake (kg) per kg egg mass was lowest (2.87±0.05) in T5as comparison to control (T1) group. Salts of organic acids supplementation resulted in significant (p<0.05) improvement in FCR. Egg weight was significantly (p<0.05) increased at 0.5% level of salts of organic acids in the diet. The cumulative mean values of feed cost per dozen egg production were Rs. 44.14, 42.40, 42.85, 43.26, 42.57, 43.29 and 43.56 in treatment groups T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6and T7, respectively, and reduction in feed cost per kg egg mass production for Rs. 0.52 and 0.99 in groups T2and T5, respectively, in comparison to T1group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It can be concluded that supplementation of salts of organic acids may improve persistency of lay, egg weight, and FCR. From economical point of view, egg production was more profitable at 0.5% level of sodium butyrate and 0.5% level of calcium propionate which reduced the feed cost per dozen eggs and per kg egg mass production without affecting the egg quality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Nutrition, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Ravinder
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dahiya
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Nutrition, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Raj Singh
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Berwal
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Nutrition, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Sajjan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sihag
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Chandrashekhar Santosh
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Patil
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India.
authors.lastname: Lalit
keywords: calcium-propionate; egg production; feed conversion ratio; feed intake; sodium butyrate and layers