The Effect of Rosemary Hydro-alcoholic (Rosmarinus Officinalis L.) Extract on Performance and Egg Quality in Laying Hens

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects using of different levels of rosemary hydro-alcoholic extract (Rosmarinus Officinalis L.) on productive performance and egg quality indicators، in laying hens. The levels of rosemary hydro-alcoholic extract in this experiment were 0، 500، 1000 and 1500ppm. This experiment was conducted in a Blok Completely Randomized Design with 160 “hy-line-W36” laying hens in 4 treatments and 4 replicate (with 10 hens in each replicate) from 29 until 38 weeks of age. The results showed that the using of different levels of rosemary hydro-alcoholic extract had significantly effects on some parameters of performance and egg traits in laying hens (p<0. 05). Hence، the highest rate of egg production and egg mass (g/b/d) and the lowest feed conversion ratio were belong to birds fed diets containing 1000ppm rosemary hydro-alcoholic extract. Also the albumen quality (HU) of eggs maintained for 21 days at 4 ° C in the resulting eggs from the birds that fed with diets containing rosemary hydro-alcoholic extract was higher than birds fed the control diet. The overall results showed that the additions of rosemary hydro-alcoholic extract in the diet of laying hens lead to improving performance and maintaining egg quality during storage.