Author(s): Kalicharan Nayal, Anil Kumar, Shraddha Kharvi, Prashant Verma, Sonakshi Saxena, Yogesh, Deepikesh Joshi and Ankit Sharma

Abstract: In the present investigation, a feeding trial of 12 weeks of duration was conducted on 96 Uttara layers of 20 week age to study the effect of dietary supplementation of Arjun (Terminalia arjuna) bark powder on the production performance and egg quality parameters. The laying hens were randomly divided in to four treatment groups (T₀, T₁, T₂ and T₃) and each treatment having four replications of six birds. Supplementation with Arjun bark powder was done at the rate of 0, 1g, 2g, and 4g/100gm respectively to standard feed. Egg production and Egg quality parameters were studied in different Phase Ⅰ (26th week of age), Phase Ⅱ (32nd week of age) and overall period. The results of the present trial indicated that dietary inclusion of Arjun bark powder increase egg production and egg weight and it also improves feed conversion ratio significantly (P≤0.05) in T₂ group. The shell thickness increases significantly however no significant difference observed in other egg quality traits. From the results of present study, it can be concluded that Arjun bark can be used as herbal feed additive/ Phyto biotic in poultry diet for higher production by incorporating 2 percent of Arjun (Terminalia arjuna) bark powder in the basal diet of Uttara chicken.

DOI: 10.33545/26174693.2024.v8.i4Sg.1047