The effects of various levels of calcium and salt on egg production and egg shell quality at high environmental temperature
2 Y. Y. Ü. Veteriner Fakültesi Hayvan Besleme ve Beslenme Hastalıkları Anabilim Dalı, VAN
3 Hayvancılık Merkez Araştırma Enstitüsü, KONYA - This study was conducted to determine the influence of dietary calcium and salt on egg yield and egg shell quality.1152 hens, 65 weeks old, were used and they fed four levels of Ca (2.5, 3, 3.5 and 4 %) and three levels of salt (0.2, 0.4, 0.6 %) in a 3 x 4 factorial arangement of treatmens invoiving 6 replicates of 16 hens.
The high levels of Ca in the diet decreased feed intake and egg yield significantly (P>0.05). Egg production of the hens fed the rations containing 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 % Ca respectively; and feed intake were 104.8, 105.3, 101.6 and 100.4 g/day respectively.
The highest level of Ca (% 4) increased egg spesific gravity value in both period and egg shell thickness in the last mounth of the experiment. Egg spesific gravity were 1.0633, 1.0651, 1.0633 and 1.0680, in the first period (August); and were 1.0674, 1.0674, 1.0683 and 1.0708 in the last period (September), respectively.
Egg production, feed intake and egg shell quality were not affected by dietary salt level (P>0.05).
The relationship between egg shell weight, the ratio of shell weight: egg weight and spesific gravity value were significantly high (P<0.01).
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