LIGHTING REGIMENS AND DIETARY IODINE SOURCES ON PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE FOR MANDARH CHICKEN STRAIN BY Ebtsam E.E.Iraqi;A.A.EL-Prollosy; Amina S. EL-Saadany; Effat Y. Shreif and Hanaa M. Khalil

Abstract

The objective of the present experiment was to examine the effect of lighting regimens, iodine sources and levels on productive performance, egg quality traits, Hatching traits and blood parameters of Mandarah chickens. A total of 400 Mandarah chicks at 8 weeks of age were divided randomly into two equal groups (200 chicks / group). Chicks of the first group were exposed to Step-up photoperiod :The photoperiod was increased gradually from 10 h/d at 8 weeks by half an hour each wk to reach 16-h/d at 20 wk of age, Chicks of the second group were exposed to constant step-up photoperiod : The photoperiod was kept constant at 12-h/d at 8 weeks of age until 16 wk of age and increased gradually by an hour each wk to reach 16-h/d at 20 wk of age. The chicks within each lighting regimen were divided equally into four dietary supplementations groups as follows: basal diet supplemented with 0 .5 mg Potassium iodide S1 (control, T1), 2 mg S1 (T2), 0 .5 mg Iodide-enriched yeast S2 (T3) and 2 mg S2 (T4) / Kg diet. The results during the laying period up to 36 wk have shown that exposing Mandarah chickens to SUP regimen (Lr1) significantly improved productive performance, some egg quality traits, fertility (%) and hatchability(%),compared to CSUP regimen (Lr2). Moreover, Plasma total protein, albumin, globulin, Igm, IgG, TAC, HDL, HDL/LDL ratio and T4 significantly increased for Lr1 compared with Lr2. Feeding Mandarah chickens on organic iodine significantly improved the laying performance , feed conversion ratio, some of egg quality traits , fertility (%), hatchability(%)compared with inorganic iodine group. In conclusion, it is possible to use the SUP regimen combined with feeding on 2 mg organic iodine /kg diet in laying management to improve productive performance,hatching traits, some blood constituenst.