Three trials were carried out with 336 laying hens, aging 24 weeks and after second forced molt, caged in commercial conditions (550 cm²/bird) to evaluate the use of bulb garlic (5 kg/t), probiotic (300 g/t) and virginiamycin (20 g/t) as additives in laying hens diet before, during and after the induced forced molt stress (FM). A completely randomized design, with seven replicates of six brids each, was used. The treatments consisted of a control diet (CD) supplemented with bulb garlic (G), probiotic (P) and virginiamycin (V,) resulting in treatments: CD+G; CD+P; CD+V; CD+G+V; CD+P+G; CD+P+V; CD+G+P+V. The pre-experimental period lasted 15 days, where the birds were under a photoperiod of 17 h of light: 7 h of dark.The trial 1 was carried out during four weeks before FM, where the birds were fed 110 g of diet with the additives. The trial 2 was conducted during FM (12 days), where the birds were fed diet with 10 g of corn ground, used to reduce the amount fed in 110 g of diet. The trial 3 was carried out in the postmolt period, where the birds were fed 110 g of diet without additive, and the collection period began when birds showed over 50% of egg production. Before FM, bulb garlic decreased the egg mass in comparison to probiotic (48.2 vs. 39.8). During FM, virginiamycin and P+V mixture decreased intestinal percentage in relation to bulb garlic (7.51 and 7.72 vs. 9.43), but weight and percentage of spleen were not affected. After FM, the variables were not affected by the treatments. Bulb garlic, probiotic and virginiamycin showed no effect on semi-heavily laying hens performance, before, during and after induced FM stress in relation to the diet without additives.
additives; antimicrobes; egg production; stress
