Assessment the Impacts of Dietary Electrolyte Balance Levels on Laying Performance of Commercial White Layers

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to test whether egg performance and egg shell quality during peak egg production are affected by the diets supplemented with NaHCO ₃ or K ₂ CO ₃ . In experiment 1 four diets were formulated using different inclusions of NaCl, NaHCO ₃ and K ₂ CO ₃ to give the dietary electrolyte balances (DEB) as 176, 204, 225 and 242 mEq/kg, and fed to laying hens from 22 weeks to 30 weeks of age. In experiment 2, two diets were formulated to obtain DEB of 186 and 208, and fed to the same strain from 31 to 39 weeks of age. Egg production, egg shell quality, feed intake, egg mass and feed conversion ratio were not significantly affected by the diets of various DEB (P>0.05). In conclusion, the results suggested that there was no need for the supplementation of sodium bicarbonate and or potassium carbonate into practical laying hen diets during peak egg production.