• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2010

To investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of Acanthopanax senticosus (AS) and Eucommia ulmoides (EU) on antioxidant defense system in laying hens, a total of three hundreds sixty 20-wk old Hyline brown commercial laying hens were assigned to five dietary groups for 10-wk: (1) control diet, (2) control diet supplemented with AS at 0.5%, (3) control diet supplemented with AS at 1.0%, (4) control diet supplemented with EU at 0.5% and (5) control diet supplemented with EU at 1.0%. Total antioxidant status (TAS) in blood and antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase (SOD), gluthathione -S- transferase (GST) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and lipid peroxidation in the small intestine and liver were measured. There were no changes in body weight for 10-wk dietary treatment. TAS in blood significantly (P<0.05) increased in birds fed the diet supplemented with 1% AS and 0.5 and 1.0% EU compared with those fed control diet. Especially, dietary EU showed much higher (P<0.05) TAS compared with AS. In the antioxidant defense enzymes, GST activity of the small intestine was shown to be significantly (P<0.05) increased in birds fed the diets supplemented with 0.5 and 1.0% EU compared with those fed the control diet. In addition, intestinal SOD activity significantly (P<0.05) increased in birds fed the diets supplemented with 0.5% of AS and EU. However, we could not observe any significant dietary treatment effect of those antioxidant parameters in the liver. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of 0.5% AS and EU in a laying hen diet could be applied as a potential antioxidant source to improves bio-activity of antioxidant and economical aspect in laying hens.