| Summary: | A 14-week experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of Corn Distillers Dried Grains with soluble (DDGS) with or without xylanase
on layers" performance and egg quality traits as well as intestinal viscosity. Four hundred and eighty Atak-S Brown laying hens (32-weekold)
were randomly distributed among the eight dietary treatments with six replicates of ten birds each. There was no significant (P>0.05)
interaction between DDGS levels and enzyme supplementation for any of the studied parameters (P>0.05). The addition of either 0.0, 10.0,
20.0 or 30.0% DDGS to the diet had no significant (P>0.05) effect on egg production, egg weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, body
weight gain, livability, eggshell braking strength, eggshell thickness, eggshell ratio, egg albumen height and haugh unit. The addition of
any level of DDGS positively affected egg yolk color. On the other hand, 30% of DDGS in the diet caused a significant (P<0.05) decrease in
egg mass. The supplementation of enzyme to diets significantly (P<0.05) increased the percentage of egg production. In addition, enzyme
supplementation resulted an overall reduction in intestinal viscosity. So, it can be concluded that up to 20% DDGS can be used in laying hen
nutrition without adversely affecting any of performance and egg quality parameters, besides xylanase based enzyme supplementation
could improve egg production and decrease intestinal viscosity regardless of the inclusion rate of DDGS.
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