EFFECT OF A SYNBIOTIC FEED ADDITIVE SUPPLEMENTATION ON LAYING HENS PERFORMANCE AND EGGS QUALITY

The goal of the researches was to assess the effects of dietary usage of a synbiotic product (strain of Enterococcus faecium + fructo-oligosaccharide + certain ficofytic compounds from marine algae) on laying hens production parameters and eggs quality. The biological material, represented by 60 ISA Brown females, 57 weeks old, was divided in two groups: control (C) (n=30) and experimental treatment (E) (n=30). C group was fed with layer standard diet, while E group received the same feed, supplemented with 1% symbiotic. Certain traits have been assessed during the 4 weeks of the experiment: hens live weight and feed intake dynamics, feed conversion ratio, laying intensity, egg mass production, eggs and eggshell weight, eggshell thickness, shell index, shell breaking strength, occurrence of eggs with unconformities. The laying hens in the experimental group, whose fed was added with 1% synbiotic, gave better yield performances (+2.2% laying intensity; +1.7% egg mass production; -2.0% feed conversion) and improved shell quality (+5.31% weight; +3.4% thickness and breaking strength). Therefore, the usage of probiotic-prebiotic-ficofytic compounds mixture in a single commercial product, as feed additive generated better results related to hens performance, feed valorization, eggs yield, and their quality