Production performance and blood parameters of laying hens fed diets with rosehip and flaxseed meal ingredients

Abstract

Abstract This study was conducted to test the effect of two levels of rosehip meal used together with flaxseed meal on weekly production performances and blood parameters of laying hens. For that, we conducted a trial for 5 weeks on 120 laying hens (Tetra SL hybrid), aged 29 weeks. All three diets had 17.50% crude protein and 2780Kcal/kg metabolizable energy, but compared to the control diet (Con) the experimental diets contained 1.5% rosehip meal and 7% flaxseed meal (Diet1) or, 3% rosehip meal and 7% flaxseed meal (Diet2). The results revealed that only feed intake was significantly (P=0.0001) affected, being lower in experimental groups. Among the haematological parameters, the heterophile were significantly higher (P=0.0377) in both Diet1 and Diet2 groups versus the Con group. From the biochemical parameters analysed, in the lipid profile, glucose and triglycerides were significantly lower in the Diet2 group compared with both the Diet1 and Con groups. Total bilirubin was significantly higher (P=0.0020) in the Diet1 group compared to the Con and Diet2 groups, while the lactate dehydrogenase was lower (P=0.0414) in the samples of the Diet2 group. Overall, the studied ingredients had a slight influence on production performances and improved some blood parameters, especially the lipid profile of the Diet2 group.