The Effects of Different Levels of Garlic and Fenugreek Powder on Performance, Egg Quality and Hematological Parameters and Antibody Titer of Commercial Laying Hens

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of garlic and fenugreek powder on performance and immune response in laying hens. The aim of this experiment was to compare the effects of garlic and fenugreek powder on performance, egg quality and hematological parameters and antibody titer against Newcastle disease of commercial laying hens. The experiment was performed for 12 weeks (from 49 to 61 weeks of age) on 288 laying hens (Bovans strain), in a completely randomized design with 6 treatments, and 4 replicate for each treatment (12 birds/replicate). The results showed that garlic and fenugreek powder had no any effect on feed intake, egg mass, egg production percent, egg weight and feed conversion ratio (p>0.05). The highest percentage of production was resulted by using 1% of garlic powder with 1% fenugreek powder. Dietary garlic and fenugreek powder had no significant effects on egg specific gravity, eggshell weight and eggshell thickness. The effect of garlic and fenugreek powder was significant on Haugh unit. Did not have any significant effects on hematological parameters and antibody titers against Newcastle disease of laying hens. The effect of garlic and fenugreek powder was significant in red blood cells. The lowest percentage of heterophile/lymphocyte, the highest percentage of lymphocyte were resulted by using 1% of garlic powder (p>0.05). The overall results showed that using garlic and fenugreek powder until 1 percent improved the egg quality traits but it did not effect performance, blood parameters and immune response of laying hens.