Effects of dietary guar meal with or without beta-mannanase on performance and egg quality traits in laying hens

Abstract

In this study, the effects of beta-mannanase supplementation to laying hens’ diets with different guar meal (GM) ratios onperformance and egg quality traits were investigated. The experimental period lasted 126 days. Ninety-six Lohman Brown hens at theage of 56 weeks were kept in individual cages. They were divided into 8 treatment groups as follows: 0% guar meal (GM0) (control); 0%GM + 0.05% beta-mannanase (GM0E); 8% GM (GM8); 8% GM + 0.05% beta-mannanase (GM8E); 16% GM (GM16); 16% GM + 0.05%beta-mannanase (GM16E); 24% GM (GM24); and 24% GM + 0.05% beta-mannanase (GM24E). A photoperiod of 16.5 h light and 7.5h dark was applied throughout the experiment. The present treatments had significant effects on changes in final live body weight, feedconsumption, feed efficiency, egg production, egg weight, shell thickness, eggshell weight, shape index, yolk index, Haugh unit, andyolk pigmentation values (P 0.05). According to our results, guar meal might be used maximally at 16% in laying hen diets, because of its negativeeffects on laying performance and egg quality traits.