Investigating the effect of different levels of the Milk thistle medicinal plant on performance traits and blood metabolites of laying hens

Abstract

Introduction: Milk thistle is a useful medicinal plant with antioxidant properties that are good for the body. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of different levels of milk thistle meal on the performance and blood metabolites of laying hens of the White Leghorn breed and Highline W-36 strain. Materials & Methods: This study was conducted in the form of a completely randomized design with 4 treatments, 5 repetitions, and 5 observations in each repetition. The length of the research period was 70 days. 10 days were considered as the habituation period. During the research period, the examined traits were measured and recorded. Recorded data were analyzed by LSmeans procedure in SAS statistical software. Results: By examining the results, it was observed that the effect of different levels of milk thistle meal was not significant on the traits under study (P>0.05). But obvious and tangible changes were observed in the traits. In general, the best performance was observed at the level of 3% milk thistle meal. Conclusion: Therefore, the level of 3% milk thistle meal is suggested for the ration of laying hens.