Effects of short chain fatty acids and probiotic on the productiveperformance of laying hens and egg quality parameters

The effect of use of acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, and probiotic on productive performance of laying hens and some quality parameters of produced eggs was evaluated using an experiment with 320 Bowens laying hens, in a 4×2 factorial experiment with four fatty acid levels (no additive, 0.1 % diet, propionic acid, 0.2 % diet, butyric acid and 0.3 % diet, acetic acid) and two levels of probiotic (0 and0.01% diet) in a completely randomized design with 8 treatments, 5 replications and 8 birds per replication. The results of production performance showed that the egg weight, feed conversion ratio, production percentage and egg mass parameters, were not affected by the experimental groups. The main effects showed that organic acid supplementation significantly increased feed intake (P<0.05). It was shownthat the percentage, diameter and color index of the yolk were not affected but the height of the yolk was improved by supplements (P<0.05). The results of shell quality also showed that specific gravity, shell percentage and shell thickness were not affected by the experimental groups, but diets containing organic acids and probiotic significantly improved shell resistance compared with non-additive group (P<0.05).It could be concluded that organic acid and probiotic supplements with a positive effect on feed consumption, egg weight, egg yolk height and shell resistance, improved production performance and quality of produced eggs.