Abstract
BACKGROUND: Supplementing poultry diets with certain natural phytogenic additives has positive impacts on performance parameters like feed intake, egg production and quality of layer hens. OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to examine how supplementing papaya seed as phytogenic feed additive (PFA) to the diets of layer chickens affected their egg production, quality and blood serum biochemical parameters. METHODS: One hundred twenty 28-week-old Bovans brown laying hens were randomly assigned to one of four treatments with varying levels of papaya seed supplementation at 0 g/kg (T1), 5 g/kg (T2), 10 g/kg (T3) and 15 g/kg (T4) in a complete randomized design. RESULT: Layer chickens supplemented with 0.5% (T2), 1% (T3) and 1.5% (T4) papaya seed as a PFA had significantly (p < 0.05) improved dry matter intake, egg production%, egg mass and feed conversion. On the other hand, papaya seed supplementation decreased (p < 0.05) the bodyweight gain of laying hens. Papaya seed supplementation significantly (p < 0.05) increased egg weight, length, width, yolk height and yolk colour compared to the control group. Serum total protein on T4 and liver enzyme of alkaline phosphatase on T3 were significantly greater (p < 0.05) than in the control group. However, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in serum albumin, glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride and aspartate aminotransferase levels among treatments laying hens. CONCLUSION: Papaya seed can be a potential candidate as a PFA at 5-15 g/kg of the basal diet to improve egg-laying performance and quality without deteriorating effect.