Effects of dietary supplementation of Kappaphycus alvarezii on productive performance and egg quality traits of laying hens

This study evaluates the effect of dietary inclusion of the red seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii (AF-KWP) on production performance, immune responses, and egg quality traits in laying birds. Day-old female chicks (n = 200) of single hatch were distributed randomly into four dietary treatments groups of 50 birds in each treatment following a completely randomized design. Each treatment was five (5) replicates with 10 chicks each. One group (T1) served as control, while in other three treatments K. alvarezii (AF-KWP) was included at 1.25% (T2), 1.50% (T3), and 1.75% (T4), respectively. The results revealed significant improvement in age at sexual maturity, egg production, egg weight, shell thickness, and some internal egg qualities due to inclusion of AF-KWP powder. The values for TBARS, free fatty acids, peroxide, and cholesterol contents were significantly lower in yolk from eggs from hens fed AF-KWP preparation. Similarly, the cell-mediated as well as humoral immunity of birds improved significantly and progressively with increased levels of AF-KWP up to 1.50% in the layer diet. Results indicated that K. alvarezii (AF-KWP) can be incorporated up to 1.50% level in diet of pullets for reduction of age of sexual maturity (egg laying age), improved productive performance and egg quality traits in laying hens.