The effect of different levels of dietary natural pigments from marigolds and red pepper on performance and egg qualitative characteristics of laying hens

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of dietary natural pigments from marigolds and red pepper on performance and egg qualitative characteristics of laying hens. A total of 96 hy-line W-36 laying hens were used in a completely randomized design in six treatments and four replications of four birds in each from 77 to 85 weeks of age. The performance and egg qualitative characteristics were examined during experimental period. The results showed that the effect of natural pigments utilization from plants marigolds and red pepper was significant (P<0.05) on feed conversion ratio, egg production percentage and egg mass, however it did not have any significant effect on feed intake and average egg weight (P>0.05). Also, the effect of experimental treatments was not significant on egg qualitative traits, including albumen height, Haugh unit, yolk height and yolk index (P>0.05), but it had highly significant effect on yolk color (P<0.001). According to the results of this experiment, it seems that the utilization of natural pigments from plants marigolds and red pepper each by amount 2gr/kg of laying hens diet have an effective role in increasing egg yolk color and marketing without any adverse effect on performance indices and egg qualitative characteristics.