Abstract
This study aimed to assess the effect of dietary supplementation with different levels of
and/or
on productive performance, ovarian follicular development, lipid peroxidation, antioxidative status, and egg quality in laying hens. Two hundred and ninety-four 45-week-old Bovans brown hens were allocated into seven groups, with seven replicates of six hens each. The first group was fed with the basal considered as a control (A); the second (B) and third (C) groups were provided with the same control diet further supplemented with 0.5 and 1 kg/ton
, respectively; the fourth (D) and fifth (E) groups received the control diet further supplemented with 0.5 and 1 kg/ton
, respectively; while the sixth (F) and the seventh (G) groups were offered a diet supplemented with 0.5 kg/ton
and 0.5 kg/ton
and 1 kg/ton
and 1 kg/ton
, respectively. No significant effects were observed in the final body weight (BW) and feed intake (FI) of the laying hens. In the diets supplemented with
and
, the egg weights for groups C, F, and G had significantly higher values only compared to group D. The supplementation of the diets with
and/or
significantly (
< 0.05) increased the Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and estradiol estrogenic hormone concentration, except for
at both levels with regard to estradiol. The dietary utilization of
and
did not significantly alter the plasma glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT), total protein, albumin, globulin, and High density lipoprotein (HDL) parameters. Cholesterol, glucose, triglyceride, and Low density lipoprotein (LDL) were decreased (
< 0.05) in the birds fed with
and/or
supplemented diets. Moreover, at both doses, the dietary supplementation with
and
decreased (
< 0.05) the yolk cholesterol and liver Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. In addition, the dietary enrichment with
and/or
decreased (
< 0.05) the palmitoleic and stearic fatty acids' egg yolk concentration. In contrast, the yolk linoleic fatty acid concentration was significantly increased by
and/or
. In conclusion, dietary supplementation with
and/or Origanum positively affected productive performance, ovarian follicular development, antioxidant activity, hormonal status, and steroidogenesis in Bovans brown laying hens.