This experiment was conducted to study the effects of natural zeolite on the performance of laying hens. One hundred and eighty 37-week-old Babcock B-300 hens were fed with a diet containing 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 g clinoptilolite/kg in an experiment consisting of 36 hens per treatment during a 4x28 days experimental period. | Tr. J. of Agriculture and Forestry 22 (1998) 623-628 © TÜBİTAK Influence of Natural Zeolite on Performance of Laying Hens and Egg Quality Ergin ÖZTÜRK, Güray ERENER, Musa SARICA University of Ondokuz Mayıs, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Animal Science, 55139-Kurupelit-Samsun-TURKEY Received: Abstract: This experiment was conducted to study the effects of natural zeolite on the performance of laying hens. One hundred and eighty 37-week-old Babcock B-300 hens were fed with a diet containing 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 g clinoptilolite/kg in an experiment consisting of 36 hens per treatment during a 4x28 days experimental period. All feeding programs were isocaloric and isonitrogenous. Hens were put at random into 5 treatment groups (12 replicates and 36 hens per treatment). No significant dietary effects were observed in terms of body weight, feed consumption, feed efficiency ratio, the number of eggs laid per hen, shell thickness, mortality or other criteria of egg quality (P>.05). Significant dietary effects of clinoptilolite feeding were observed in the form of a decrease in faecal moisture content (). Dışkı nem içeriğinde ise özellikle clinoptilolitle yemlemeye bağlı olarak önemli düşüşler gözlenmiştir (P<). Introduction Zeolites are crystalline, hydrated aluminosilicates of alkali (. Na+, K+) and alkaline (. Mg+2, Ca+2) earth cations, having infinite three–dimensional structures. They have the ability to gain and lose water reversibly and to exchange constituent ionic cations without major changes of structure (1, 2). Ca+2, cations are exchangeable with other cations such as NH4+, Mg+2, Na+, K+. Although it has been reported that feeding laying hens with zeolite improves eggshell quality (3–11), the mechanisms of this beneficial effect are unknown (3, 5). There are various hypotheses concerning the function of zeolite. The calcium–exchange capacity of sodium alumino–silicate (SAS) is known to be greater than meq/g (12). Various
