IMPACT OF SUPPLEMENTING L-CARNITINE ON PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF MAMOURA CHICKEN DURING THE WINTER SEASON

: The purpose of this study was to see how supplementing with L-carnitine affected the productive and reproductive performance of Mamoura chickens from 36 to 48 weeks of age during the winter season. A total number of 132 Mamoura laying hens (120 hens + 12 cocks), 36 weeks (wk.)-old, was used in a completely randomized design and randomly assigned into four dietary treatments as follow: L-carnitine at 0, 150, 300 and 450 mg/kg, each group was included on three replications (10 hens +1 cock in each replicate) and was kept until 48 weeks of age. Results revealed that supplementing different levels of L-carnitine resulted insignificant improvement in feed intake, laying %, fertility, hatchability % of fertile egg and hatchability % of setting egg. Also, the results showed that egg weight, egg mass, Chick weight at hatch liver weight % and heart weight % were significantly increased by feeding diets supplemented with L-carnitine. In hens fed diets supplemented with L-carnitine, feed conversion, mortality percent, serum albumin, cholesterol, serum triglycerides, low density lipoprotein, and aspartate transaminase enzyme levels were all significantly lower. It could be concluded that dietary L-carnitine fortified with300 or 450 mg/kg for Mamoura laying hens in winter led to improvement in productive and reproductive traits.