Effect of benzoic acid on production performance, egg quality, intestinal morphology and cecal microbial community of laying hens

Abstract This study was conducted to determine the effects of supplemental dietary benzoic acid on production performance, egg quality, intestinal morphology, and intestinal microbiota of laying hens. A total of 720 45-week-old Lohman pink-shell laying hens were randomly allocated to 3 dietary treatments: control (CON), diet supplemented with 1000 mg/kg benzoic acid (BA1) and 2000 mg/kg benzoic acid (BA2). Each treatment included 10 replicates of 24 hens; laying hens were monitored for 16 weeks. Overall, the results indicate that benzoic acid supplementation had no effect on laying rate, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and breaking rate; however, a decrease in egg weight (P