Abstract:

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of dietary supplementation of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) (BCEO) and cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum L.) essential oils (CEO) on yield performance, egg quality and eggshell bacterial contamination of laying hens. A total of 315 Atak-S, 28-weeks-old of age were randomly assigned to three groups with 5 replicates of 21 hens each and fed diets supplemented with 0.5 ml/kg feed black cumin and cinnamon essential oil respectively for 11 weeks. During the experiment performance parameters, egg external and internal quality characteristics and eggshell bacterial microbial contamination were measured weekly. At the end of the experiment, CEO supplementation improved feed conversion rate and increased egg shell thickness (P<0.05). Dietary BCEO reduced eggshell Escherichia coli contamination (P<0.05). However, there was no significant statistical difference between the experimental groups in terms of feed consumption, egg production, egg weight and other egg internal and external quality characteristics (P>0.05). In conclusion, we found that the addition of CEO may improve the performance of laying hens while the addition of BCEO may reduce the egg shell Escherichia Coli bacteria contamination.

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