Effect of adding garlic and tomato pomace powder to diet on the body weight, productive performance, and egg quality traits in broiler breeders

To investigate the effect of adding garlic and tomato pomace powder to the diet of Ross 308 broiler breeders on production performance, body weight, egg quality traits, and hatchability characteristics, a total of 375 chickens were randomly assigned to five iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous diets, including four diets containing 0.2 and 0.4% of garlic and tomato pomace dried powder and a control diet with five replicates (15 hens and one rooster per pen). Chicken’s body weight through the trial period (47 to 56 weeks of age), daily egg production (%), average egg weight, and hatching traits were recorded daily. The chickens’ body weight was significantly affected in the first five weeks of the experiment (46 to 51 weeks of age) and during the second five-week period (52 to 56 weeks of age). Adding 0.4% tomato pomace to the diet significantly increased the chickens’ weight (P<0.05). For hatching traits, there were no significant differences between treatments (P>0.05). During the first five weeks of the experiment, the feed conversion ratio decreased in the control and the 0.4% garlic powder treatments compared with the other dietary groups. Also, in the second five weeks of the experiment, control, and garlic powder treatments had a lower feed conversion ratio compared with diets containing tomato powder (P<0.05). Based on the results of the present experiment, it can be concluded that adding garlic powder compared to tomato powder caused better results.