ABSTRACT
Aims: This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of adding commercial probiotics and prebiotic to diet on performance of laying hens, egg traits and some blood parameters. Study Design: Data of feed intake (FI), egg production (EP), egg mass (EM), and calculated feed conversion ratio (FCR) were analyzed based on completely randomized design using GLM procedure of SAS. Place and Duration of Study: All procedures used in this 7-week experiment were approved by the "Animal Ethics Committee of Razi University" and complied with the "Guidelines for the Care and Use of Animals in Research". Methodology: Five iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous diets (ME =2720 Kcal/Kg and CP=150 g/kg) including basal diet (control) and basal diet supplemented by probiotics (PrimaLac®, A-Max and Yeasture) and prebiotic (Fermacto) were formulated. A total number of 90 Lohmann LSL-Lite laying hens were randomly divided in 15 cages (n=6). The experimental hens were 56-wk old with an average egg production rate of 90.6 ±4.8% and 1,460±24 g live body weight. Hens in every 3 cages (replicates) were assigned to feed on one of the 5 experimental diets. Results: FI, FCR, EM, EP, egg weight, egg traits (egg index, yolk index, Haugh unit, yolk color, shell weight and thickness) and blood parameters were not affected by adding probiotics or prebiotic to diets. Conclusion: Using Primalac, Fermacto, A-Max and Yeasture did not have beneficial effects on performance of laying hens. However, the effects of probiotics and prebiotic on suboptimal circumstances should be investigated in future.