Does dietary calcium source and iron interaction affects egg laying performance, quality and yolk iron enrichment? Sharma Amit1*, Gupta R. K.1, Kaur Daljeet1, Hundal J. S.2, Singh Gurpreet3, Wagh R. V.4 1Department of Livestock Production Management, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India-141004 2Department of Animal Nutrition, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India-141004 3Department of Veterinary Physiology and Biochemistry, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India-141004 4Department of Livestock Products Technology, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India-141004 *Correspondence: draslpm@gmail.com
Online published on 9 September, 2022. Abstract Present study was conducted to assess the interaction between dietary powdered and particulate form of limestone as calcium source vis a vis graded levels of inorganic iron supplementation on egg production, quality and yolk iron enrichment. In 3x2 factorial experimental design, a total of 72 BV-300-layer hens between 20–47 weeks of age were subjected to total 6 treatments (with 3 replicates having 4 birds each) comprised of three dietary levels (50, 75 and 100 mg per Kg feed) of iron and two levels of substitution (50 and 75%) of fine limestone powder (LSP) with limestone grit (LSG). The source of calcium and iron interaction had significant effect on egg production and substitution of 75% of LSP with LSG along with increased iron supplementation significantly improved percent hen housed and hen day egg production and feed conversion ratio for egg mass production but increasing LSG inclusion, only significantly (Pd” 0.05) improved egg shell thickness. Although, increasing LSG or iron supplementation did not improve egg yolk iron but dietary substitution of LSP with LSG upto 75% at supplementation of 100 mg iron/kg feed improved egg production performance of layers, especially during late laying phase. Top Keywords Egg production, Egg quality, Limestone grit, Limestone powder, Yolk iron enrichment. Top |