Effect of L-Arginine on Productive Performance, Egg Quality Parameters, Blood and Hormone Parameters of Laying Hens in Late-phase of Production

This experiment was conducted to investigate effects of l-arginine on productive performance and egg quality parameters, blood and hormone parameters of laying hens in late phase of production for 8 weeks. Forty eight Hy-Line W-36 were used in a completely randomize design with four level of l-arginine (1/20=control diet, 1/32, 1/44 and 1/56 percent) and four replicate from 92-98 weeks of age. Layers were weighed at 90 week of age and randomly distributed into 16 cages in order to have a similar pen body weight. The performance data were recorded daily, whereas the egg quality traits were determined biweekly. At the end of experiment 2 eggs from each cage were collected for egg yolk cholesterol analysis. Supplementation of l-arginine in diet did not have significant effect on productive performance and egg shell quality in layers. Furthermore, the addition of l-arginine to diet did not have significant effect on the egg yolk cholesterol (P> 0.05). The results of this study showed that supplementation of l-arginine improved Hough unit and yolk cholesterol and blood progesterone with no adverse effect on productive performance.