Effects of adding different levels of lycopene to the diet in weights of egg yolk, egg albumen , egg shell and yellow pigment concentration in egg yolk for local Iraqi geese.

Abstract

This study has been conducted at the poultry farm belong to department of Animal Resource, Agriculture College at University of Baghdad in the period from 20/10/2013 to 28/3/2014. This study was conducted to study the effects of adding different levels of Lycopene on yolk weight, albumen weight, egg shell weight and yolk yellow pigment concentration for local geese. A total of 48 local geese females in two years old were used in this study. Geese were randomly distributed to four treatments, each group has been consisted of 12 birds .Birds were fed on diet contain 15% crude protein with 2950 Kcal metabolic energy.kg-1 feed. Lycopene has been added to the diets at the beginning till the end of experiment period. Birds has been reared in single separated cages. Groups were as following: Treatment 1 : birds fed diet without additions of Lycopene (control group) , Treatment 2 : birds fed diet with 300 mg lycopene.Kg-1 of diet(T2) , Treatment 3 : birds fed diet with 600 mg lycopene.Kg-1 of diet(T3), Treatment 4 birds fed diet with 900 mg lycopene / Kg of diet(T4) . .