Effect of different levels of germinated barley on performance of laying hens and egg quality in different storage conditions

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of germinated barley on the performance and egg quality of laying hens in different storage conditions. Six experimental diets consisted of Corn diet (corn basal diet), Barley diet (barley basal diet), Enzyme diet (barley basal diet plus enzyme Safizym) and 33, 66 and 100% germinated barley diets (in which barley was replaced by germinated barley at 33, 66 and 100 percent, respectively) were fed to laying hens for 10 weeks. Four replicates of 5 hens were allocated to each experimental diet. Results of experiment indicated, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were significantly for enzyme diet (124.09 gr and 2.13, respectively) and germinated barley 100% (125 gr and 2.04, respectively) than hens fed barley diet (129.68 gr and 2.28, respectively) (P<0.05). Egg weight in germinated barley 100% was significantly lower than barley diet (63.63 and 65.29gr, respectively), but egg production (95.97 and 87.61%, respectively) as well as egg mass production (61.08 and 57.67 gram per day, respectively) were higher (P<0.05). Storage of eggs resulted to significant (P<0.05) decrease of specific gravity (from1.087 to 1.066), albumin index (from 10.70 to 5.52), albumin percent (from 54.97 to 55.91), Haugh unit (from 90.47 to 68.03) and yolk index (from 42.90 to 38.12). Therefore, use of germinated barley in egg laying diets can improve hen performance and egg storage decreases egg quality.