This study aimed to evaluate the dietary effect of organic sulfur (OS) supplementation on performance, egg quality and serum constituents in laying hens. A total of 360 Lohmann brown laying hens at the age of 31 weeks were distributed into four treatments having five replicates of 18 hens each until 54 weeks. The hens were fed four levels (0.0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4%) of OS with basal diet. The number of eggs was investigated daily, and egg quality was confirmed every 8 weeks. Sulfur content in eggs, interleukin 2 (IL-2), T help cells (CD4+) and cytotoxicity cells (CD8+) were measured at the termination of the experiment. The result of the study showed that egg production tended to increase with 0.4% OS in diet after 39 weeks of age and, there was a significant effect (P<0.05) from 47 to 54 weeks of age. Egg quality traits of albumen height and haugh unit increased significantly (P<0.05) owing to the addition of OS to the diet. The polyunsaturated fatty acids in yolk were gradually increased while saturated fatty acids were decreased with increasing levels in OS (P<0.05). Total sulfur concentration in the eggs increased significantly (P<0.05) in treatments fed OS. Moreover, albumin, AST and HDL cholesterol levels in serum improved significantly (P<0.05) owing to the addition of OS. The IL-2 concentration and the ratio of CD4+ and CD8+ in blood were generally higher (P<0.05) at 0.4% OS. Therefore, it can be recommended that supplementary OS diet affected the performance, egg quality and stimulated immune response in laying hens.

To evaluate the effects of anthocyanin-fortified barley (AFB) and whole crop barley (WCB) addition to diets, 200 Brown Nick hens were assigned to 5 treatments with 5 replicates for 8 weeks. All the treated groups differed in feed intake, egg production, egg weight, and egg mass compared to those of a control group. As the intake of barley was increased, feed intake, egg production, and egg mass decreased. In terms of egg quality, the yolk color (YC), the egg shell breaking strength (SBS), and the egg shell color (SC) differed up to 6 weeks of growth. Feeding the WCB and AFB to laying hens up to 8 weeks had a positive influence on albumin height (AH) and the haugh unit (HU). Up to 6 weeks of growth, increasing the amount of barley in the diets of the laying hens had a positive effect on the SC and the YC but had no effect on the SBS. Diets including 20% AFB and WCB increased the AH and HU to 9.10 and 94.53, respectively. The results suggest that the addition of AFB and WCB up to 10% to the diets of laying hens could improve the laying performance and the egg quality.