• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.980-985
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• 2000

Influences of Japanese green tea powder (GTP) supplementation to commercial diet on laying performance and egg quality were studied by using 60 laying hens. The experimental diet with or without 0.6% GTP was given ad libitum to the birds during the period from 6 to 71 weeks of age. The birds started egg production from 21 wk of age regardless GTP feeding. Body weight, feed intake, egg weight tended to decrease with GTP supplementation, while egg production rate tended to increase. Haugh unit score was significantly increased with GTP, which accompanied with the increased albumen height. These were observed almost throughout the laying period over 50 wk. Gel proportion in thick albumen was decreased as storage time is prolonged, then higher values of the gel proportion were recorded in the eggs from GTP group. Thick albumen of the eggs from GTP-fed layers had more carbohydrate than that from control layers. All these indicate physical stability of thick albumen in the eggs from GTP group. Thiobarbituric acid content of egg yolk tended to remain lower in the eggs from GTP group during 5-10 days of storage at room temperature. Levels of egg yolk cholesterol and yolk lipid were significantly reduced by GTP feeding. There were no significant differences in eggshell weight, shell thickness and shell strength between the two groups. Thyroid gland and liver from hens slaughtered at 71 wk of age did not differ in weight irrespective of GTP feeding. The present results suggest that GTP could modify components of edible part of egg, leading to the characteristics favourable to consumers such as high durability of thick albumen and less cholesterol in yolk, without altering general performance of the layers throughout this year round experiment.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1450-1455
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• 2017

Objective: The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of dietary ${\beta}-mannanase$ on productive performance, egg quality, and utilization of dietary energy and nutrients in aged laying hens raised under hot climatic conditions. Methods: A total of 320 84-wk-old Hy-line Brown aged laying hens were allotted to one of four treatments with eight replicates in a completely randomized design. Two dietary treatments with high energy (HE; 2,800 kcal/kg nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy [$AME_n$]) and low energy (LE; 2,700 kcal/kg $AME_n$) were formulated. Two additional diets were prepared by adding 0.04% (MN4) or 0.08% ${\beta}-mannanase$ (MN8) to LE treatment diets. The feeding trial was conducted for 28 d, covering a period from July to August in South Korea. The average daily room temperature and relative humidity were $29.2^{\circ}C$ and 83%, respectively. Results: Productive performance, egg quality, and cloacal temperature were not influenced by dietary treatments. The measured $AME_n$ values for MN8 diets were similar to those for HE diets, which were greater (p<0.05) than those for LE and MN4 diets. However, the $AME_n$ values for MN8 diets did not differ from those for LE and MN4 diets. Conclusion: The addition of ${\beta}-mannanase$ to low energy diets increases energy values for diets fed to aged laying hens. However, this increase has little positive impacts on performance and egg quality. These results indicate that dietary ${\beta}-mannanase$ does not mitigate the heat stress of aged laying hens raised under hot climatic conditions.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.3_spc
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• pp.443-448
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• 2021

Objective: Astaxanthin is a natural super antioxidant. The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of astaxanthin rich Phaffia rhodozyma (PR) supplementation in diets on laying production performance, egg quality, antioxidant defenses and immune defenses in laying hens. Methods: A total of five hundred and twelve 60-week-old Lohmann Brown laying hens (2,243±12 g) were randomly assigned to four groups, each including 4 replicates with 32 birds per replicate. Astaxanthin rich PR was added to corn-soybean meal diets to produce experimental diets containing 0 (Control), 800 mg/kg, 1,200 mg/kg, and 1,600 mg/kg PR, respectively. The astaxanthin content in the diet was 0.96 mg/kg, 1.44 mg/kg and 1.92 mg/kg respectively. Results: Results showed that dietary PR supplementation tended to increase daily feed intake (p = 0.0512). There was no effect of astaxanthin rich PR on Haugh units, albumen height, egg shape index, eggshell strength, and eggshell thickness at weeks 6 (p>0.05). However, egg yolk color was significantly improved (p<0.05). In addition, astaxanthin rich PR supplementation significantly increased serum glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activity (p<0.05), increased serum immunoglobulin G content (p<0.05), and reduced malondialdehyde content (p<0.05) in laying hens. Conclusion: In conclusion, astaxanthin rich PR can improve the color of egg yolk, enhance the antioxidant defenses, and regulate the immune function.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.161-167
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• 2003

A study was conducted to investigate the effect of supplementing earthworm meal (EWM) on the performance of laying hens and fatty acid composition in egg yolks. A total of 360 laying hens at 55 weeks of age were fed the experimental diets containing 0.0% (Control), 0.1% and 0.2% of EWM for 5 weeks. Eggs were collected and weighted every day and egg production and feed conversion were recorded every weeks during the experimental period. However fatty acid composition of egg yolk were measured at last week of experimental period. Amount of feed intake tended to increase by supplemental EMW, but feed conversion ratio of birds fed EWM was not different among three groups. Average egg production seemed to increase and significantly improved (P<0.05) when fed a 0.1% EWM and 0.2% EWM, respectively. Average egg weight was prone to decrease when fed a 0.1% EWM compared to that fed a 0% (control) or 0.2% EWM. Average daily egg mass tended to improve by the addition of EWM. It was more increased in 0.2% EWM treatment than 0.1% EWM. The ratio of egg yolk n-6/ n-3 fatty acids contents was 5:1 fed a 0.1% and 0.2% EWM. But these ratio was 10:1 in control group. It is concluded that 0.2% earthworm meal supplementation in the 55 weeks old laying hens diet, improves the laying performance and ratio of egg yolk n-6/ n-3 fatty acids contents (P<0.05).

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.1028-1033
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• 2010

The effects of delta-aminolevulinic acid (DALA) or chito-oligosaccharide (COS) in layer diets on production performance, egg quality and hematological characteristics were investigated in this 8-week trial. Two hundred and seventy 27-week-old (Hy-Line brown) layers were randomly assigned to 5 treatments with 9 replications per treatment. Dietary treatments were i) Control (basal diet); ii) DALA1 (basal diet+DALA 2 mg/kg); iii) DALA2 (basal diet+DALA 4 mg/kg); iv) COS1 (basal diet+COS 100 mg/kg) and v) COS2 (basal diet+COS 200 mg/kg). In this study, no significant difference was observed in feed intake and egg shell quality (eggshell breaking strength and egg shell thickness) among treatments. The inclusion of DALA increased egg production during the first 4 weeks. Egg weight was increased in both DALA (quadratic, p<0.05) and COS (linear, p<0.05) treatments compared with the control treatment. Laying hens fed the DALA treatment had an increased yolk color unit (quadratic, p<0.05) and haugh unit (linear, p<0.05) compared with the control group. Similarly, these characteristics were also affected by COS treatments, with both values being linearly increased (p<0.05) in COS treatments compared with the control treatment. Additionally, birds fed DALA treatments significantly increased (quadratic, p<0.05) the number of RBC, WBC and lymphocytes compared with the control treatment. Dietary DALA supplementation linearly increased (p<0.05) the serum iron concentration at the end of the 8th week. The inclusion of COS increased (linear, p<0.05) the concentration of RBC, WBC and lymphocytes compared with the control treatment. In conclusion, dietary DALA at the lower dosage (2 mg/kg) could exert better effects in laying hens than higher dosage (4 mg/kg). Birds fed DALA supplemented diet had an increased iron availability, egg weight, eggshell quality and immunity. Moreover, the inclusion of COS (200 mg/kg) can increase egg weight, eggshell quality and immunity in laying hens. Therefore, both the utilization of COS and DALA could be considered as a new strategy for optimizing egg quality and health condition of laying hens.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.275-279
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• 2005

This study investigated the effect of dried food-waste diets (FW) fermented by Aspergillus oryzae (AEW), on egg Production and egg qualify in laying hens. One hundred sixty eight laying hens, 50 week old, ISA-Brown wtrain were randomly distributed into 7 treatments with 3 relpicates of 8 birds per replicate and fed with standards laying hen diet replaced with FW and AFW at die=rent level Basal Diet, 25, 10, $75\%$, respectively. There was a significant decrease in feed intake for FW $50\%$ diet and egg Production was statistically lower in all W diet treatments(p<0.05). Water consumption was increased as the replacement increased. Egg weight, egg shell thickness and strength were similar among treatments. However, egg yolk color and Haugh unit showed distinct differences when W were added to their diets(p<0.05). No difference was observed in egg yolk cholesterol. It seems that FW diet could decrease the egg Production, but would be able to improve egg Quality. From this results, AO seemed applicable to laying hen diet as supplements.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.103-114
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• 1989

Reciprocal crosses were conducted between three strains of Taiwan Country chickens, developed in the National Chung-Hsing University, and two strains of Single Comb White Leghorns, developed in the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute. Traits studied were growing performances, laying performances, egg quality traits and traits concerning disease resistance, including resistance to Marek's disease virus and immune responses to Newcastle disease virus vaccine and to sheep red blood cell. Results indicated that laying performances of Taiwan country chickens were much inferior to White Leghorns, but they matured earlier, their eggs had better shell strength and larger proportion of yolk, and their general disease resistance was much better than White Leghorns. Heterosis were found in laying performances and egg quality traits. The heterosis in laying traits was so large that the hybrid laid as many eggs and as large eggs as did pure strains of White Leghorns. Strategies on the improvement of native chickens and the utilization of genetic merits of native chickens were also discussed.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.115-122
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• 2013

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary ${\beta}$-mannanase supplementation and palm kernel meal (PKM) inclusion (5%) on laying performance, egg quality and nutrient utilizability of laying hens with 73 weeks of age. A total of 240 Lohmann brown laying hens with average 77.5% egg production were randomly allocated with 60 hens per treatment, 4 replicates per treatment and 15 hens per replicate. Experimental design was a completely randomized design with $2{\times}2$ factorial arrangement, with the factors being (1) two levels of PKM (0 vs. 5%) and (2) with or without dietary ${\beta}$-mannanase (480 IU/kg of diet CTCzyme$^{(R)}$) supplementation. All hens were housed in cages ($35cmW{\times}35cmD{\times}40cmH$) with 2 hens per cage for six weeks feeding trial. Laying performance was recorded daily during feeding trial. Egg quality, nutrients utilizability and blood assays were done at the end of feeding trial. Egg production was improved (P<0.05) by both dietary PKM inclusion and ${\beta}$-mannanase combined supplementation. Either ${\beta}$-mannanase or PKM did not affect feed intakes and feed conversion ratio of all diets. Egg weight of hens fed diet containing 5% of PKM had heavier (P<0.05) eggs compared with hens fed without PKM. Albumen height was improved (P<0.05) by dietary mannanase supplementation. Crude fat utilization of 5% PKM diet was higher than that of no PKM diet regardless of ${\beta}$-mannanase supplementation. Both DM and total carbohydrate utilization were decreased (P<0.05) in hens fed 5% PKM diet. Serum IgG and yolk IgY contents of PKM groups were lower (P<0.05) than those of no PKM groups. This result showed that 5% PKM diet, independent of dietary ${\beta}$-mannanase supplementation, was able to improve egg production. In addition, dietary ${\beta}$-mannanase supplementation could be used for improving the albumen height of eggs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1661-1666
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• 2009

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of Se-enriched bean sprout, Se-enriched yeast and sodium selenite on productivity, egg quality and egg Se concentrations in laying hens. Using a Completely Randomized Design, 144 Rohman laying hens at 71 weeks of age were divided into four groups. Each group consisted of four replicates and each replicate contained nine hens. The dietary treatments were T1: control diet, T2: control diet plus 0.3 mg Se/kg from sodium selenite, T3: control diet plus 0.3 mg Se/kg from Se-enriched yeast, T4: control diet plus 0.3 mg Se/kg from Se-enriched bean sprout. The results showed that there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in feed intake, egg production and egg quality among treatments. Selenium supplementation from Seenriched yeast and Se-enriched bean sprout markedly increased (p<0.05) egg Se concentration as compared to the control and sodium selenite groups. The results indicated that Se-enriched bean sprout could be used as an alternative Se source in diets of laying hens.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.86-90
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• 2018

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary detoxified Rhus verniciflua sap (RVS) on production performance, egg quality, lipid fractions of egg yolk, liver and serum, and the profile of cecal microflora in laying hens. Methods: Two hundred 52-week-old Hy-Line Brown layers were randomly divided into 4 groups with 5 replicates per group (2 hens per cage, 5 cages per replicate) and were provided with one of 4 experimental diets containing 0%, 0.05%, 0.1%, or 0.2% RVS, for 6 weeks. Due to unequal intervals of RVS doses, the interactive matrix language procedure of the SAS program was used to correct the contrast coefficients of orthogonal polynomials. Results: There were no differences in feed intake and egg weight among the groups. Egg production increased (linearly and quadratically, p<0.05) with increasing levels of RVS. Eggshell thickness increased (linear, p<0.05) as the level of RVS in diets increased. The levels of blood cholesterol and activities of glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase were not altered by dietary treatments. Increasing level of RVS increased (linear, p<0.05) the populations of cecal lactic acid bacteria. The content of yolk cholesterol decreased (linear, p<0.05) with increasing levels of dietary RVS, although there were no significant differences in each lipid fraction of the liver. Conclusion: This study indicates that dietary RVS could improve laying performance and eggshell quality, and affect cecal lactic acid bacteria in a dose-dependent manner.