| ABSTRACT In total, 216 Hy-Line brown laying hens (40-week-old), were used in a 5-week experiment to evaluate the effects of ionized or chelated water-soluble mineral mixture supplementation on live performance, nutrient digestibility, blood characteristics, egg quality, and excreta microbiota. Layers were randomly assigned to one of three dietary treatments with 12 replicates of six adjacent cages each. The dietary treatments consisted of: 1) CON (basal diet + normal tap water), 2) T1 (CON+0.5% ionized mineral mixture in tap water, pH 3.0); and 3) T2 (CON+ 0.5% chelated mineral mixture in tap water, pH 3.0). Egg production tended to increase in week 1, week 3 and week 4 in the birds supplemented with T1 and T2 diet compared with CON. Moreover, the dietary... |
