EFFECT OF FENUGREEK SUPPLEMENTS TO HIGH FATTY ACIDS DIETS ON LAYER PERFORMANCE
Tatiana Panaite, Maria Gabriela Cornescu, Rodica Criste
Abstract
The study evaluated the effect of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum), leguminous plant with antioxidant properties, supplemented to high fatty acids layer diets. The 6-week experiment used 80 Lohmann Brown layers (59 weeks) assigned randomly to 2 groups (C and E), housed in metabolic cages (2 birds per cage). The birds had free access to the feed and water. They received compound feeds with an inclusion of 5% oleaginous seeds (flax and camelina), characterized by 16.50% CP and 2170 kcal/kg ME. Compared to C, the experimental group E, was treated with 1% fenugreek. Fenugreek was added for its antioxidant properties to protect the oleaginous seeds from peroxidation. This experiment evaluated the influence of the dietary fenugreek on layer performance because the literature gives contradicting reports on this topic. Throughout the experiment we monitored the daily intake, the feed conversion ratio, the laying percentage, whole egg weight. Egg samples (18 samples/group) were collected every 2 weeks with the purpose to determine the weight of egg shell, egg yolk and egg white.
The experimental results showed that the group treated with fenugreek (E) had a significantly (P=0.05) lower laying percentage (81.722±6.026%) compared to C (84.796±5.342%) and also an average daily feed intake for E (111.974±5.689 gCF/head/day, E) lower (P=0.05) compared to C (121.857±6.485 gCF/head/day), without any influence on egg weight.
