. 2024 Nov 29;11(1):e70146. doi: 10.1002/vms3.70146

TABLE 2.

The effects of dietary Thymus schimperi leaf meal on the production performance and egg quality of laying hens.

	Treatment ^a
Parameter	Control	TLM1.5	TLM2.5	TLM3.5	SEM ^b	p ^c
Production performance
Initial bird weight (kg)	1.7	1.69	1.7	1.7	0.003	0.991
Final bird weight (kg)	1.82^b	1.92^a	1.82^b	1.81^b	0.011	<0.001
Feed intake (g/day/bird)	104^a	101^b	99.4^b	97.3^c	0.744	<0.001
Bird weight gain (kg)	0.11^b	0.22^a	0.11^a	0.117^b	0.027	<0.001
Egg mass (g/bird/day)	42.3^c	49^a	44.8^b	44.6^b	0.706	<0.001
Daily egg production (%)	80.4^c	87^a	82.8^b	82.6^b	0.649	<0.001
Egg weight (g/day)	57.9^c	58.8^c	60.3^b	65.3^a	0.567	<0.001
Feed conversion ratio	1.87^a	1.82^b	1.75^c	1.83^b	0.042	<0.001
External traits
Shell thickness (mm)	0.31^c	0.50^a	0.42^b	0.38^b	0.019	<0.001
Shell weight (g)	6.95^c	7.42^ab	7.74^a	7.11^bc	0.146	<0.001
Shell weight (% of egg weight)	11.9^b	12.8^a	12.7^a	11.5^b	0.205	<0.001
Shell breaking strength (N)	35^b	35.5^b	39.6^a	34.4^b	0.428	<0.001
Egg width (mm)	4.19	4.26	4.31	4.32	0.052	0.254
Egg length (mm)	5.12^b	5.45^a	5.46^a	5.61^a	0.064	<0.001
Egg shape index (%)	74.7^c	78.1^bc	79.6^b	84.3^a	1.32	<0.001
Internal traits
Yolk weight (g)	14.2^c	14.6^c	15.1^b	15.8^a	0.178	<0.001
Yolk weight (% of egg weight)	24.6	24.8	25.1	25.3	0.356	0.718
Albumen weight (g)	36.7^b	36.6^b	37.5^b	39.4^a	0.595	<0.001
Albumen weight (% of egg weight)	63.4	62.3	62.3	63.2	0.404	0.218
Albumen height (mm)	5.88	6.27	6.44	5.54	0.329	0.335
Haugh unit	88.2^c	88.4^c	88.9^b	89.4^a	0.157	<0.001
Yolk colour	6.5^c	7.33^b	8.66^a	7.66^b	0.25	<0.001

Note: Means in a row with different superscripts are significantly different (p ≤ 0.05).

^{^a}

Control, TLM1.5, TLM2.5 and LM3.5 = commercial laying hen concentrate, control + 1.5% Thymus schimperi leaf meal, control + 2.5% Thymus schimperi leaf meal and control + 3.5% Thymus schimperi leaf meal, respectively.

^{^b}

SEM: standard error mean.

^{^c}

* = p ≤ 0.05. ns = p > 0.05.