Effect of diets contained different levels of wheat bran with or without enzyme on the performance of laying hens

In a completely randomized design with factorial arrangement (2×4), 192 White-Hyline laying hens at the age of 38 weeks were used. Treatments were four basal diets including 0, 10, 15 and 20 percent of wheat bran each with (0.05 percent) or without multi-purpose enzyme that were tested for a period of 84 days experiment. The enzyme consisted of Rovabioexel containing xylanase 2200 unit/g, beta gluconase 200 unit/g, cellulase 100 unit/g and pectinase 100 unit/g. The results indicated that diets contained 10 and 20 percent wheat bran had the highest and lowest egg production percentage (P<0.05) respectively. Increasing the level of wheat bran up to 20 percent led to a decrease in daily feed consumption (P<0.05). Egg weight, egg mass and feed conversion ratio were not significantly affected by the levels of wheat bran and enzyme. Furthermore, egg quality traits such as egg shape index, albumen quality (Hugh unit), yolk color index, percentages of yolk and albumen, as well as egg shell thickness were not significantly affected by the levels of wheat bran and enzyme. Based upon the results of this experiment, 10 percent of wheat bran is an appropriate level which could be used in the diet of laying hens.