Artemisia dracunculus L. alleviaties negative effects of stocking density in laying hens

Abstract

In the study was conducted to determine the effects of the addition of tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus L.) at different four levels to the laying hen diets (0, 1.2, 6 and 12 g/kg feed) housed in two different stocking density (5 or 7 layers/cage), on performance, some shell quality, serum, liver, egg yolk and small intestine bacteria parameters. Experiment was continued for 8 weeks, with 192 Lohman Brown layered commercial hybrids at 50 weeks age. During the experiment, a 16-hour lighting program was applied and feed and water were given as ad-libitum. It was determined that stocking density did not affect the weight gain, FCR, damaged egg average egg weight, examined egg shell quality properties. While increased stocking density reduced daily feed intake (FI; P<0.01) and egg production (P<0.05), did not affect examined egg shell quality properties. The addition of tarragon decreased daily FI and damaged egg level (P<0.01), and improved egg production and FCR (P<0.01). Increasing stocking density reduced (P<0.05) amount of serum total antioxidant and increased (P<0.05) corticosterone (CORT) and total oxidant of serum (TOS). The addition of tarragon to the diet decreased linearly the amount of serum CORT and TOS (P<0.05). All doses of tarragon enhanced increasingly serum total immunoglobulin levels (P<0.05). Malondialdehyde amounts of serum, liver and eggs were decreased with the addition of different tarragon doses (P<0.05). The addition of tarragon to the diets decreased numerically (P>0.05) the number of E. coli and the total number of mesophilic aerobic bacteria decreased (P<0.05) in the intestine. As a result, tarragon used in the diet showed that it is generally effective in improvement performance parameters, alleviating the stress-induced results, reducing lipid peroxidation, regulating the immune system, controlling intestine some microorganisms.