Advances in Research

The Indian industry is presently focussed in production of eggs that have higher or enriched levels of certain nutrients. These eggs are capable of safeguarding the health of consumers. Designer eggs have high market demand because of the consumers’ willingness to purchase designer eggs due to its’ nutritional qualities additional to regular eggs. Considering these facts the current study was planned to produce zinc enriched eggs by supplementing laying hens’ diet with required levels of zinc. The present study was conducted at the Department of Veterinary Physiology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, for 12 weeks. A total of 28 week old thirty two laying hens, belonging to crossbred (White Leghorn N strain and Desi) housed in the animal house attached to the department were used in the experiment. The treatments of this study included a control diet (according to BIS, 2007) fed group and zinc-supplemented group. Each of the experimental treatments had four replicates with four birds with all standard managemental conditions. The functional liver status of birds was not altered due to zinc supplementation, since the present study neither caused any toxicity nor imparted any negative effect on the production performance. Highly significant effect was observed on serum concentration of zinc and calcium. However, the phosphorus levels of treated birds were not significantly different from the control group.