Effect of Corn Silage Combined with Prebiotic or Probiotic on Performance, Immune Response, Blood Parameters, and Bone Indices in Molted Layer Hens

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of corn silage with prebiotic or probiotic on perform-ance, immune response, and bone indices in layer hens during the molting period. Sixty 89-weeks old hens after the acclimatization period was used in a completely randomized design with five treatments including production diet (PD), feed withdrawal (FW), 20% PD plus 80% corn silage (CS80), 80% corn silage with 20% PD and probiotic at a level of 0.5 g/kg (CS80+Pro); 80% corn silage with 20% PD and prebiotic at a level of 1 g/kg (CS80+Pre). Four replicates of three birds were allocated to each treatment and the experi-ment lasted for 14 days. Results indicated that hens fed corn silage alone or combined with prebiotic or probiotic had significantly lesser feed intake than the PD group (P 0.05). Hens subjected to feed with-drawal treatment or corn silage feeding loss of roughly 22 to 30 percent of their body weight which was significantly lesser than hens fed PD (P 0.05). The FW and the use of corn silage alone or with prebiotic or probiotic compared to PD, resulted in a significant decrease of the ovary and liver weights (P 0.05). Blood phosphorus concentration was significantly higher in corn silage with prebiotic or probiotic treatments than in FW and PD treatments (P 0.05). This experiment showed that corn silage could be used as an effective method for force molting instead of feed withdrawal.