EFFECTS OF BITTER ORANGE JUICE AND AVILYTE® AS ALTERNATIVE SOURCES TO ANTIBIOTICS ON EGG QUALITIES OF LAYING HENS

Abstract

For sustainability and increased productivity of the poultry enterprise, utilization of substances with growth promoting effects can act as an alternative to antibiotics, acting as a key component to effective disease control. A ten week experiment was carried out to assess the efficacies of alternatives to antibiotics on egg quality traits of commercial layers. In a Completely Randomised Design, a hundred and forty-four commercial layer birds were randomly allotted into four treatments and replicated thrice with 12 birds per replicate at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Apata Ibadan. The birds were offered a formulated layers basal diet with 2601 metabolizable energy, 16% crude protein and 3.32% crude fibre. Enrofloxacin, bitter orange juice and Avilyte® were administered via water. T1 had Enrofloxacin (10 ml to 20litres of water), T2 had Avilyte® (10 g to 20 litres of water), T3 had bitter orange juice (500mls to 20litres of water) and T4 were given ordinary water. Data were collected for internal and external egg quality parameters and subjected to Anova of SAS (2016) and means where significant were separated using Duncan multiple range test. Results on internal egg parameters revealed that there was no significant difference (p˃0.05) across the treatments except for albumen diameter which was significantly (p<0.05) highest in T1 (9.80 cm) and lowest in T4 (8.78 cm). Egg number which is an external egg parameter was significantly (p<0.05) highest in T3. The egg weight was significantly (p<0.05) impacted by the treatments with range values of 57.25 g (T3) – 63.58 g (T4). The egg shape index was between 75.74 and 77.42 in T3 and T4 respectively, (p>0.05). The study concluded base on external egg quality parameters that Avilyte® and bitter orange juice can serve as alternatives to antibiotics.