journal of kerbala university

This study was carried out at the poultry farm of Animal Resources Dept. / College of Agriculture / University of Baghdad during the period from 1/2/2008 to 1/8/2008 to investigate the effect of adding different levels of ginger powder to layer diets on biochemical blood traits. Ninty laying hens (Lohmann Brown) at the age of 20 weeks were used in this study . At the age of 22 weeks , the hens were individually weighed and randomly distributed into five treatments and each treatment with three replicates (6 hens / replicate). The treatments were as follows : T1 (control) : without addition ، other treatments included different levels of dry ginger as follows : T2: 1.0% ، T3: 1.5% ، T4: 2% and T5: 2.5% .
The results showed significantly(P<0.01) decrease in serum glucose of treatments with addition of ginger ، however T4 and T5 showed significantly increased in total protein at 34 week of age as well as T3 and T4 at the age of 46 week . There were no significant differences between all treatments in total albumin and globulin at 34 and 46 weeks of age. T3،T4 and T5 showed significant (P<0.05)decrease in serum cholesterol at the refered previous weeks ، as well as the triglycerid and Low density lipoprotein (LDL) level of blood serum was decreased in all treatments with addition as compared with the control group .T4 and T5 gave the highest High density lipoprotein) HDL) during these periods . It can be concluded from this study ، that the addition of ginger powder to the layer diets will improve the biochemical blood traits of hens and produce healthy food.