Effect of dried Thyme leaf (Thymus Schimperi R.) on chicken productivity performance and egg quality

Authors

  • Erdaw Weldes Animal Feed Processing, Ethiopia Meat and Dairy Industry Development Institute, Ethiopia.
  • Meseret Girma Animal and Range Science, Haramaya University, Ethiopia.
  • Mengstu Urge Animal and Range Science, Haramaya University, Ethiopia.
  • Ali Beker Animal and Food Science, Oklahoma State University, Ethiopia.

Keywords:

Egg quality, Layers, Productivity, Ration, Thyme leaf

Abstract

The feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of thyme leaf as an additive on productive performance and egg quality traits of white leghorn chicken at Haramaya university poultry farm for 11 weeks. One hundred twenty white leghorn (WLH) layers at the age of 26 weeks with average initial body weight of 1216.1±6.62 gram (mean±SD) were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments. The treatments were T1 (Layers ration (LR) with 0% Thyme leaf meal (TLM), T2 (layer’s ration with 1% TLM), T3 (layer’s ration with 2% TLM) and T4 (layer’s ration with 3% TLM). Each treatment group was replicated three times with ten laying hens and two cocks per replicate in completely randomized design (CRD). Samples of feed ingredients, thyme and formulated diets were subjected to chemical analysis before the actual experiment began. Weight of experimental birds was measured at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. The result indicated inclusion of thyme leaf in the layers diet significantly (p<0.01) influenced feed intake, final body weight, body weight change and average daily weight gain of birds which were greater in T2 and T1 than T4. The hen-day egg production 57.20±1.09 in T3 and 59.23±1.09 in T4 were significantly (p<0.01) higher than birds in Tand control groups. The feed conversion ratio differs significantly (p < 0.01) among treatments ranging 3.28 to 4.70 and the lowest value was recorded in T3 and T4, which is an indicator of the best performance of birds. Among egg quality traits, yolk height and index were significantly higher in birds under T2 and T3 thanT1 and yolk weight was higher in T3 than T1. The economic analysis showed that the total and net return of birds fed a diet supplemented with thyme is higher than birds fed the control diet. Therefore, thyme leaf can be an imperative feed additive that can be added up to 3% in the layer ration to improve the performance of layers without adversely affecting product quality.

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Published

2022-01-31

How to Cite

Weldes, E. ., Girma, M. ., Urge, M. ., & Beker, A. . (2022). Effect of dried Thyme leaf (Thymus Schimperi R.) on chicken productivity performance and egg quality. Scientific Journal of Animal Science, 10(1), 699-711. Retrieved from https://sjournals.com/index.php/sjas/article/view/1661

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Original Article