Effect of supplementation of sea buckthorn leaf meal on egg production performances of coloured breeder birds during winter season

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted to study the effect of sea buckthorn leaf meal (SBTLM)  supplementation on hen house and hen day egg production in ninety coloured Chabro adult breeder hens  and 18 viable cocks in 1:5 sex ratio were randomly distributed into three dietary treatment groups: Control,  standard basal breeder diet (BIS, 2007); basal+0.5% and basal+1.0% SBTLM. The average egg production  during 9th week onward till the entire period of experimentation were significantly higher (p<0.01) in both  SBTLM supplemented groups (basal diet+0.5% SBTLM and basal diet+1.0% SBTLM) as compared to  control group (basal diet). However, it was also observed that from 3rd week to 5th week of experimentation,  the weekly hen house egg production were significantly higher (p<0.05) in both the SBTLM supplemented  groups than the control group. The overall egg production up to the 12th week of experimentation were  significantly higher (p<0.01) in both the SBTLM supplemented groups as compared to control group.  During the experimental study period, there was no mortality in any treatment group. Hence, the hen day  egg production per week and phase wise hen day egg production per week was equal to the hen house  egg production per week egg production.