author(s)
Tanay Ghosh, Anil Kumar, Anju Sati, BC Mondal, SK Singh and Ripusudhan Kumar

abstract
The study was carried out to discern the effects of dietary incorporation of black cumin (Nigella sativa), garlic (Allium sativum), and turmeric (Curcuma longa) in combination with linseed oil on production performance in White Leghorn laying hens. A feeding trial of 12 weeks duration was conducted on 28 week old 120 hens. Hens were randomly distributed into four treatment groups with 30 hens per treatment having three replicates in each. Four treatments includes control (T₁): basal diet; Treatment 2 (T₂): incorporation of 1% herbal feed additives (black cumin, garlic and turmeric powder; 1:1:1 ratio) and 1.5% linseed oil in basal diet; Treatment 3 (T₃): incorporation of 1% herbal feed additives (as in T₂) and 2% linseed oil in basal diet and Treatment 4 (T₄): incorporation of 1% herbal feed additives (as in T₂) and 2.5% linseed oil in basal diet. Results showed significant (P< 0.05) increase on egg production (71.53%), feed intake (113.32 g) and egg weight (57.64 g) in T₂ group compared to T₃ and T₄ groups in laying chickens. There was no significant effect on FCR and body weight gain among treatment groups. From the results it can be concluded that dietary supplementation of 1% feed additive mixture of black cumin, garlic and turmeric powder in equal proportion in combination with 1.5% linseed oil in basal diet ameliorate egg production, feed intake and egg weight and is cost effective for improving production performance in White Leghorn laying chickens.