Comparative effects of inorganic and organic selenium sources on performance, eggshell quality and egg selenium content of laying hens

A total of 150 Hy-Line W-36 laying hens at 38 week of age were randomly assigned into 5 dietary treatments and 3 replicates each with 10 birds. Hens were fed diets including: low-selenium diet without selenium supplementation (basal diet), basal diet plus 0.3 ppm Na-selenite, or basal diet plus 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 ppm Sel-Plex. The hens performance, eggshell quality and egg selenium content were evaluated on the one-28 period. Egg weight, egg mass, eggshell quality and egg selenium concentration were not affected by the dietary treatments (P>0.05). Overall, feed intake, hen-day egg production and feed conversion ratio were significantly (P<0.05) different among treatment groups. Feed intake was higher in the hens fed 0.3 ppm Na-selenite and 0.2 ppm Sel-Plex diets compared to the basal diet. Feeding diets containing 0.3 ppm Na-selenite and 0.1 ppm Sel-Plex significantly increased feed conversion ratio compared to feeding the basal diet (P<0.05). Percentage of hen-day egg production was lower in 0.1 ppm Sel-Plex diet compared to the basal diet. The results showe that adding the higher levels of Sel-Plex had no adverse effects on layer performance and eggshell quality at the peak of egg mass.