• 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.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.609-618
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• 2023

Objective: TLRI 211-1 is a novel Bacillus subtilis strain. This experiment was to investigate dietary supplementation of TLRI 211-1 on laying performance, egg quality and blood characteristics of layers. Methods: One hundred and twenty 65-wk-old Leghorn layers were divided into four treatment groups for 8 weeks experiment. Each treatment had three replicates. The basal diet was formulated as control group with crude protein 17% and metabolizable energy 2,850 kcal/kg and supplemented with TLRI 211-1 0.1%, 0.3%, and commercial Bacillus amyloliquefaciens 0.1% as treatment 2, 3 and 4 groups, respectively. Both TLRI 211-1 and commercial Bacillus amyloliquefaciens were adjusted to contain 1×10⁹ colony-forming unit (CFU)/mL (g), hence the 0.1% supplemental level was 1×10⁹ CFU/kg. Results: The results showed that TLRI 211-1 0.3% and commercial B. amyloliquefaciens groups had higher weight gain than the other groups; TLRI 211-1 0.1% group had better feed to eggs conversion ratio than the control and commercial B. amyloliquefaciens groups (p<0.05). Bacillus subtilis supplementation increased yolk weight (p<0.05). In egg quality during storage, TLRI 211-1 0.1% had higher breaking strength than the control group at the second week of storage (p<0.05). At the third week of storage, TLRI 211-1 0.3% had higher Haugh unit (p<0.05). Hens fed diets supplemented with TLRI 211-1 0.3% significantly decreased blood triglyceride levels and increased blood calcium levels (p<0.05). TLRI 211-1 0.3% group had lower H₂S (p<0.05) and hence had less unpleasant odor in excreta of hens. Conclusion: In conclusion, supplementation with 0.1% TLRI 211-1 can significantly improve feed to eggs conversion ratio. TLRI 211-1 supplementation also can maintain eggs at their optimum quality level during storage. The study showed that B. subtilis TLRI 211-1 can be used as feed additives for improving egg production performance and egg quality.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.723-726
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• 1996

A water loaded pressure device using water as the breaking force was developed to evaluate eggshell strength and compared with a dropping ball techniques. Further, relationships of shell thickness and weight of eggs to shell strength were also studied. Values for both of the shell strength measuring methods showed a highly significant correlation (p < 0.001) with shell thickness. The water loaded pressure method had a much higher simple correlation coefficient for shell thickness (r = + 0.786) than the dropping ball method (r = + 0.577). The shell strength measured by the water loaded pressure method appeared not to be correlated to egg weight. On the other hand, the negative sign of the standard partial regression coefficient and the partial regression coefficient of egg weight in the estimated multiple regression equation implied that for a given shell thickness a larger egg tended to have less shell strength than a smaller egg.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1996.06c
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• pp.834-841
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• 1996

Egg production in Korea is becoming automated with a large scale farm. Although many operations in egg production have been and cracks are regraded as a critical problem. A computer vision system was built to generate images of a single , stationary egg. This system includes a CCD camera, a frame grabber board, a personal computer (IBM PC AT 486) and an incandescent back lighting system. Image processing algorithms were developed to inspect egg shell and to sort eggs. Those values of both gray level and area of dark spots in the egg image were used as criteria to detect holes in egg and those values of both area and roundness of dark spots in the egg and those values of both area and roundness of dark spots in the egg image were used to detect cracks in egg. Fro a sample of 300 eggs. this system was able to correctly analyze an egg for the presence of a defect 97.5% of the time. The weights of eggs were found to be linear to both the projected area and the perimeter of eggs v ewed from above. Those two values were used as criteria to sort eggs. Accuracy in grading was found to be 96.7% as compared with results from weight by electronic scale.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1769-1774
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• 2005

This experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of feeding green tea powder on laying performance and egg quality in hens. A total 180 'Tetran Brown' laying hens aged 40 weeks were assigned to 6 treatments in a completely randomized design. Each treatment consisted of five replicates accommodating six layers per replication. The experimental diets were a negative control containing no green tea, a positive control diet containing antibiotics (0.05% chlortetracycline) and diets containing 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% green tea powder. Egg production rate of layers fed the diets containing green tea powder did not differ significantly from that of the negative and positive controls (p>0.05). Egg weight was decreased significantly in the group fed the diet containing 0.5% green tea powder (p<0.05). Feed intake of layers was significantly higher for the diet containing 1.5% green tea powder compared to that of negative and positive control diets (p<0.05). The eggshell thickness reduced significantly in the layer group fed the diets containing green tea powder regardless of dietary levels (p<0.05). Green tea powder tended to reduce egg yolk cholesterol in this experiment. Particularly, dietary 2% level of green tea powder significantly suppressed the cholesterol contents of the egg yolk (p<0.05). Thiobarbituric acid value (TBA) of egg yolk was significantly reduced by green tea diets (p<0.05). The yellowness of egg yolk was increased in the layers fed the 2.0% green tea diet compared with that of control diet (p<0.005). The Linoleic and $\alpha$-linolenic acids tended to increase in the group fed diets containing 1.5% green tea powder even though there were no significant differences among treatments (p>0.05). The oleic and docosahexaenoic acid contents of the egg yolk were similar among treatments (p>0.05). Based on the results of the experiment, it is concluded that green tea powder inclusion in the diet for layers at 2.0% level can reduce the cholesterol content and TBA value of the egg yolk, implying its potential effect on egg quality parameters.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 1997

A nondestructive quality inspection technique using acoustic impulse response method was studied to investigate the feasibility of egg shell inspection. An experimental system was built to generate impact force, to measure the response signal and to analyze the frequency spectrum. This system includes an impulse generating unit, an egg holding seat, a microphone with preamplifier, and a digital oscilloscope connected to Personal Computer by RS-232C interface. The factors such as impulse generating method, egg holding method, and sensor location were evaluated by analyzing the power spectrum density of the measured signal. The results obtained are summarized as follows : 1. From the sampled eggs, the proper conditions for detecting damaged eggs were found as followings; ceramic for the impact ball material, rubber for egg seat material, 20 degrees for an impact angle of pendulum, 10mm for the distance between egg and sensor, the sharp side for impacting part, and 180 degrees for the location of sensor. 2. Examination of the Fourier transformed analysis in beth normal and damaged eggs revealed that those factors such as the resonant frequency, a number of peak frequencies and the magnitude of power spectrum were important to detect damaged eggs.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.84-86
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• 2003

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of dietary supplementation of yeast Rhodotourula glutinis(Glutincus) on the performance and egg quality of layers. A total of 360 ISA Brown layers of 72 weeks old were assigned to one of the following 6 diets ：control, 25 ppm ${\beta}$-carotene. 0.5％, 1％, 2％ and 4％ Glutinicus supplemented diet. Each treatment was replicated three times with 20 birds housed in 2 birds cage units. Glutinicus supplemented at the level of 0.5％ significantly(p＜0.05) improved egg production and FCR. Soft and broken egge production rate decreased as the level of Glutinicus supplementation increased. Eggshell was highest in Glutinicus 4％ supplementation. Egg yolk color increased linearly as the level of Glutinicus supplementation increased up to 2％ of the diet. It was concluded that Glutinicus supplementation at the level of 0.5％ can be recommended for the improvement of egg production while 2.0％ can be recommended for egg yolk pigmentation.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.267-274
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• 2008

There are many kinds of anti-oxidant materials in natural plant resources. The Siberian ginseng and Eucommia are well known as anti-oxidant and medicinal plants. To investigate the effect of their anti-oxidant-like activity on telomere quantity and egg quality, diets containing Siberian ginseng leaf and Eucommia leaf at 0.5% and 1% were given Hyline Brown commercial laying hens during two periods of age: 20 to 30 wks and 60 to 70 wks. The amount of telomere in lymphocyte, liver, ovary, heart and lung was analyzed by quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization using telomeric DNA probe. Egg weight, albumin height, Haugh unit, egg yolk color, egg shell color, egg shell thickness, egg shell weight and egg shell density were measured to analyze egg quality. The chickens consuming diets Siberian ginseng and Eucommia had higher telomeric DNA in lymphocytes than control chickens in younger layers whereas no significant differences were detected in all target cells analyzed from older layers. Egg quality was increased in younger hens with dietary supplementation as determined by egg weight, albumin height and Haugh unit but there were no effects in older hens. These results imply that dietary supplementation of Siberian ginseng and Eucommia in layers improves bio-activity and egg quality at early laying stage.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.449-457
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• 2010

This study investigated the effects of three kinds of water extract mixtures each with different ratios of A. capillaris, C. sinensis, S. chinensis, and V. coloratum on laying performance, egg quality, blood characteristics, and egg storage stability in laying hens. One hundred and sixty 35-wk-old laying hens (Hy-line brown) were divided into four groups of 10 birds each replicated times four. The treatments involved a basal diet (C, control) or diets containing three kinds of water extract mixtures at 200 ppm (T1, water extract mixture A; T2, water extract mixture B; T3, water extract mixture C). The egg production rate, egg mass, and feed conversion ratio were significantly improved in all treatments compared to those of control (p<0.05). Haugh unit and egg yolk color in all treated groups were significantly improved in comparison with control (p<0.05), but no significant differences were observed for egg shell quality. The content of total cholesterol in blood serum was significantly decreased in all treatments compared to that of control (p<0.05). The blood biochemical parameters of liver and kidney damage were significantly decreased in all treatments compared to those of control (p<0.05). Total antioxidant activity in the blood serum of all treated groups was increased as well. The Haugh unit and malondialdehyde content in the egg yolk during storage were significantly decreased in all treated groups compared to control (p<0.05). Consequently, the dietary supplementation of water extract mixtures of A. capillaris, C. sinensis, S. chinensis, and V. coloratum improved laying performance and egg quality but decreased egg quality deterioration with increased storage. These results suggest that medicinal plant extracts could be used as a feed additive in feed for laying hens.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2013

The leopard danio, Danio rerio var. frankei is a spotted color morph of the zebrafish, Danio rerio caused by a pigment mutation. The structural differences of fertilized egg and egg envelope are poorly documented. To clarify this, we compared the fertilized egg morphology and ultrastructures of surface structures, the micropyle and the cross section of fertilized egg envelopes of zebrafish and leopard danio, variation species of zebrafish using a light and electron microscopes. Although the fertilized egg sizes were different, the external shapes of the fertilized eggs of two species couldn't be differentiated under the light microscope. The characteristics of fertilized eggs, such as a spherical shape, a non-adhesive quality and a large perivitelline space, were shown to be related to spawning habit. In ultrastructure of fertilized egg envelope, there is no morphological difference of micropyle between two species. By contrast, the ultrastructure and the numbers of knob-like structures and semihemisphere-like structures per unit area on the outer surface, and the number of lamellae of inner layer on the fertilized egg envelope section displayed definite species specificity. Collectively, our data indicate that the ultrastructure of fertilized egg envelope in the zebrafish could be differentiated by species variation.