The effects of untreated and urea treated lemon pulp on performance, egg quality traits and blood parameters in laying hens

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of untreated and urea treated lemon pulp on performance, egg traits and blood parameters of laying hens. In this experiment 192 Hy- line W36 laying hens were used from 35-46 weeks of age in 4 treatments, 4 replicates and 12 hens in each replicate in a completely randomized design. Experimental groups included: 1) control group (without using lemon pulp), 2) group with 4% untreated lemon pulp, 3) group with lemon pulp treated with 0.5% urea, 4) group with lemon pulp treated with 1% urea. The results showed that using lemon pulp and its treating, have significant effects on performance and egg traits of laying hens (P<0.05). In contrary with control group, using untreated lemon pulp improved the performance and egg traits, however the best performance was seen with 4% treated lemon pulp with 0.5% urea. The highest egg weight, egg production percentage, egg mass, feed intake, the best feed conversion ratio, the lowest price for production each kilogram of egg, the highest egg yolk color index, yolk weight and Haugh unit were obtained in this experimental group. Using lemon pulp treated with 1% urea in contrary with treated lemon pulp with 0.5% urea, had adverse effects on performance and egg traits of laying hens. Untreated and urea treated lemon pulp did not have any significant effects on blood parameters of laying hens (P>0.05). The overall results indicated that using 4% of lemon pulp untreated and treated lemon pulp with 0.5% urea, improve the performance and egg traits of laying hens and reduce the production price