The effect of different levels of apple wastes onperformance, egg quality and blood parameters ofcommercial laying hens

In this experiment 144 Hy- line (W36) laying hens were used from 65-76 weeks of age in 4 treatments, 3 replicatesand 12 hens in each replicate in a completely randomized design. Experimental groups included: 1) control group,2) 2.5% of apple wastes, 3) 5% of apple wastes, 4) 7.5% of apple wastes. The results showed that using apple wastehas signifcant effects on performance, egg quality and blood parameters of commercial laying hens (p<0.05). Thehighest amounts of egg weight and egg mass, the highest egg production percentage, the best feed conversion,and the lowest price of feed intake for production per kilogram of egg were resulted by using 5% of apple waste.Using 7.5% of apple waste signifcantly decreased the amount of feed intake. Using more than 2.5% of apple wastein laying hens diets had adverse effects on egg traits. In this case the percentages of eggshell, egg yolk, Haughunit and eggshell thickness decreased. The lowest level of blood cholesterol was resulted by using 2.5% of applewastes, whereas the highest level of lymphocyte was obtained by using 5% of apple wastes. The overall resultsshowed that using 5% of apple wastes improve the performance of laying hens, however using more than 2.5% ofapple waste has adverse effects on egg traits.