• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.9
• /
• pp.1320-1325
• /
• 2003

The purpose of present study was to assess the effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) on the immune responses of laying hens. Three hundred and sixty hens at the age of 60 weeks were randomly assigned to ten diets, which contained no oil (CK), 1%, 3%, 5% fish oil (FO); 2%, 4%, 6% linseed oil (LO) and 2%, 4%, 6% corn oil (CO). After 5 weeks of feeding experimental diets, humoral and cellular immune responses were assayed. Laying hens were injected with Sheep Red Blood Cell (SRBC) and Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) and antibody titers, which were measured on d6, d10, d14 after primary challenge and on d5, d9, d13 after secondary challenge. Concanavalin (ConA) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) -stimulated proliferation of peripheral blood and spleen lymphocytes were assessed by [$^3$H] thymidine incorporation at the week age of 5 and 10, respectively. The results showed that antibody titers in FO-fed and LO-fed laying hens were higher than that in laying hens fed CO. The proliferation response to ConA was lower in laying hens that fed oils rich in n-3 fatty acids than that in laying hens fed CO. Higher level n-3 fatty acids can improve immune functions of laying hens. In conclusion, dietary fat source and level had a significant impact on immune responses of laying hens.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2001

Two experiments were carried out to evaluate the effects of adding phytase on nutrient availability and serum Ca and P level and to determine the effects of phytase on laying performance and egg quality in laying hens. In Exp. 1, twenty four laying hens(1.9kg average body weight and 78.4% egg production) were allotted to four treatments. Treatments included 1) corn-soybean meal based-control diet and 2), 3) and 4) control diet with phytase 200, 400 and 600 unit/kg, respectively. There were no significant effects of treatments on dry matter and nitrogen digestibility(P〉0.05). Ash, Ca and P digestibility in layer fed diet with phytase were greater than those in layer fed control diet(P〈0.05). Laying hens fed diets with phytase 200 and 400 unit retained more Ca than those fed other treatments (P〈0.05). No statistical difference was found for Ca exsretion(P〉0.05). P retention was greater for laying hens fed diet phytase 600 unit than other treaments(P〈0.05). P level in serum was higher for laying hens fed diets with phytase 400 and 600 unit than for laying hens fed other treatments. In Exp. 2, three hundred, IAS Brown layer, 40-week-old, divided into two treatment groups(control vs phytase supplementation without inorganic phosphate in the diets) with five replications per treatment and 30 layers per replication were fed the diets for 6 weeks. Egg production, egg weight and eggshell breaking strength and thickness were not different significantly(P〉0.05). In conclusion, phytase supplementation can be used to increase P utilization and retention in laying hens. Also, phytase supplementation was effective to spare inorganic phosphate in laying hen diets without any adverse effects on production performances.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.32 no.11
• /
• pp.1715-1724
• /
• 2019

Objective: As laying hens become aged, laying performance and egg quality are generally impaired. One of the practical methods to rejuvenate production and egg quality of aged laying hens with decreasing productivity is a forced molting. However, the changes in intestinal microbiota after forced molting of aged hens are not clearly known. The aim of the present study was to analyze the changes in excreta bacterial communities after forced molting of aged laying hens. Methods: A total of one hundred 66-wk-old Hy-Line Brown laying hens were induced to molt by a 2-d water removal and an 11-d fasting until egg production completely ceased. The excreta samples of 16 hens with similar body weight were collected before and immediately after molting. Excreta bacterial communities were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. Results: Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria were the three major bacterial phyla in pre-molting and immediate post-molting hens, accounting for more than 98.0%. Lactobacillus genus had relatively high abundance in both group, but decreased by molting (62.3% in premolting and 24.9% in post-molting hens). Moreover, pathogenic bacteria such as Enterococcus cecorum and Escherichia coli were more abundant in immediate post-molting hens than in pre-molting hens. Forced molting influenced the alpha diversity, with higher Chao1 (p = 0.012), phylogenetic diversity whole tree (p = 0.014), observed operational taxonomic unit indices (p = 0.006), and Simpson indices (p<0.001), which indicated that forced molting increased excreta bacterial richness of aged laying hens. Conclusion: This study improves the current knowledge of bacterial community alterations in the excreta by forced molting in aged laying hens, which can provide increasing opportunity to develop novel dietary and management skills for improving the gastrointestinal health of aged laying hens after molting.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.886-894
• /
• 2021

Objective: An experiment was conducted to study the effect of graded concentration of digestible lysine (dLys) on performance of layers fed diets containing sub-optimal level of protein. Methods: Five diets were formulated to contain graded concentrations of dLys (0.700%, 0.665%, 0.630%, 0.593%, and 0.563%), but similar levels of crude protein (15% CP), energy (10.25 MJ ME/kg) and other nutrients. A total of 3,520 hens (26 wk of age) with mean body weight of 1,215+12.65 g were randomly divided into 40 replicate groups of 88 birds in each and housed in an open sided colony cage house. Each diet was offered ad libitum to eight replicates from 27 to 74 wk of age. The performance was compiled at every 28 d and the data for each parameter were grouped into three phases, that is early laying phase (27 to 38 wk), mid laying phase (39 to 58 wk), and late laying phase (59 to 74 wk of age) for statistical analysis. Results: Egg production, egg mass and feed efficiency (feed required to produce an egg) were significantly improved by the dLys level during the early and mid laying phases but not during the late phase. Whereas feed intake was significantly reduced by dLys concentration during mid and late laying phases but not during early laying phase. The egg weight was not affected by dLys concentration in any of the three phases. Conclusion: Based on best fitted statistical models, dietary requirements of dLys worked out to be 0.685%, 0.640%, and 0.586% during early phase, mid phase, and late egg laying phase, respectively. The calculated requirement of dLys for the respective production phases are 727 mg/b/d during the early and mid laying phases and 684 mg/b/d during the late laying phase in diets containing 15% CP.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.127-135
• /
• 2021

Raising large numbers of animals in very narrow environments such as laying hens house can be very damaged from small environmental change. Previously researched about laying hens sound analysis system has a problem for applying to the laying hens house because considering only the limited situation of laying hens house. In this paper, to solve the problem, we propose a new laying hens sound analysis model using MFCC feature vector. This model can detect 7 situations that occur in actual laying hens house through 9 kinds of laying hens sound analysis. As a result of the performance evaluation of the proposed laying hens sound analysis model, the average AUC was 0.93, which is about 43% higher than that of the frequency feature analysis method.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.35 no.10
• /
• pp.1566-1574
• /
• 2022

Objective: This study investigated the effects of dietary methyl sulfonyl methane (MSM) and selenium (Se) on the laying performance, egg quality, gut health indicators, egg yolk Se content, and antioxidant markers in laying hens. Methods: One hundred ninety-two 73-wk-old laying hens were randomly divided into four groups with eight replicates of six hens each. Four diets were prepared in a 2×2 factorial arrangement with or without MSM and Se. The trial lasted for 12 wk. Results: There were no interaction effects or main effects (p>0.05) on laying performance and egg quality. However, feed intake increased in Se-fed hens (p = 0.051) and decreased in MSM-fed hens (p = 0.067) compared with that of hens in the control group. Dietary MSM increased (p<0.05) the ileal villus height and villus height:crypt ratio in hens compared with those receiving the non-supplemented control diet. Dietary MSM and Se did not affect the percentage of short-chain fatty acids in the ileal contents. Dietary Se enriched the Se content in egg yolk compared with that of the non-supplemented control diet (p<0.05). Dietary Se increased (p<0.05) glutathione peroxidase levels in the liver and serum samples compared to the control diet. The total antioxidant capacity in the liver increased (p<0.05) in laying hens that were fed MSM-supplemented diets than in hens fed the control diet. Dietary MSM significantly increased the relative superoxide dismutase levels in serum samples (p<0.05). Conclusion: Supplementation with either MSM or Se independently improved the antioxidant capacity of laying hens. Furthermore, dietary Se produced Se-enriched eggs, but this effect was neither additive nor synergistic with dietary MSM.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.26 no.7
• /
• pp.921-929
• /
• 2013

Huoyan goose is a Chinese local breed famous for its higher laying performance, but the problems of variety degeneration have emerged recently, especially a decrease in the number of eggs laid. In order to better understand the molecular mechanism that underlies egg laying in Huoyan geese, gene profiles in the pituitary gland of Huoyan geese taken during the laying period and ceased period were investigated using the suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) method. Total RNA was extracted from pituitary glands of ceased period and laying period geese. The cDNA in the pituitary glands of ceased geese was subtracted from the cDNA in the pituitary glands of laying geese (forward subtraction); the reverse subtraction was also performed. After sequencing and annotation, a total of 30 and 24 up and down-regulated genes were obtained from the forward and reverse SSH libraries, respectively. These genes mostly related to biosynthetic process, cellular nitrogen compound metabolic process, transport, cell differentiation, cellular protein modification process, signal transduction, small molecule metabolic process. Furthermore, eleven genes were selected for further analyses by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The qRT-PCR results for the most part were consistent with the SSH results. Among these genes, Synaptotagmin-1 (SYT1) and Stathmin-2 (STMN2) were substantially over-expressed in laying period compared to ceased period. These results could serve as an important reference for elucidating the molecular mechanism of higher laying performance in Huoyan geese.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.23 no.8
• /
• pp.1049-1056
• /
• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary glutamine (Gln) on the productive performance and egg quality of laying hens. A total of four hundred Lingnan Yellow laying hens aged 34 weeks were randomly assigned into four groups (100 laying hens/group), and fed, respectively, with diets supplemented with 0% (control group), 0.2%, 0.4%, and 0.8% Gln during the 6-week feeding period. The results were as follows. First, the productivity of laying hens fed with 0.8% Gln in diet was significantly increased (p<0.05); however, the egg quality (egg weight, yolk weight, shell weight, egg shape index, shell thickness, shell density, shell breaking strength, yolk color, yolk index, and Haugh unit) was not affected compared with that of the control group (p>0.05). Second, luteinizing hormone (LH) (p<0.01), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) (p<0.01), triiodothyronine ($T_3$), and tetraiodothyronine ($T_4$) contents (p<0.05) in blood of laying hens fed with 0.8% Gln in diets were also significantly improved, and greater improvement in the duodenum and oviduct structure was observed in that treatment group. This study indicated for the first time that diets with 0.8% Gln were able to increase the productive performance of laying hens through stimulating hormone secretion and better development of both the duodenum and oviduct structure in laying hens.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.12 no.7
• /
• pp.1090-1095
• /
• 1999

In order to minimize the occurrence of fatty liver, this study investigated how adding a high level of dietary choline or methionine affected the lipid metabolism of Tsaiya ducks. Feeding trials were conducted with sixty Tsaiya ducks during their growing period, when they were 8-12 weeks old, and during their laying period, 10-14 weeks after the onset of laying when they were 26-30 weeks old. The ducks were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a control group (basal diet), a group in which methionine was added to the basal diet, and a group in which choline was added to the basal diet. The levels of methionine and choline added were twice as high as the levels recommended by the NRC for layer-type chickens. Experimental results indicated that adding choline to the basal diet of growing ducks significantly (p<0.05) increased their body weight, while adding methionine significantly (p<0.05)reduced their body weight. Adding either choline or methionine reduced the ducks' liver fat content in both the growing and the laying periods (p<0.05). Ducks receiving added methionine or choline in their diets displayed enhanced egg production (p<0.05). Adding choline increased serum triacylglycerol (TG) in the laying period (p<0.05). Adding either choline or methionine did not significantly (p>0.05) affect the t-globulin level. Adding methionine increased the activity of liver malic dehydrogenase in both the growing and the laying periods, and increased fatty acid synthetase in the laying period (p<0.05). While adding choline markedly (p>0.05) increased VLDL and apo B in both the growing and the laying periods, it decreased HDL and apo A in the laying period (p<0.05). This study found that adding a high level of choline to the basal diets of Tsaiya ducks in both the growing and the laying periods had beneficial effects. Furthermore, adding methionine affected the lipid metabolism of Tsaiya ducks to a lesser extent than adding choline.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.609-624
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study is to give the guideline to the pattern designing by supplying various images of the transformed shape of tailored collar with the location and angle of gorge line and laying measurement of the tailored collar while designing the tailored collar. The results of this study are as follows : Images of the sample at the case of 1cm of laying measurement looks 'urban', 'light', 'sharp', 'young', 'fashionable' and 'narrow' than that at the case of 7cm. When the laying measurement increases, the image of the sample looks more 'classical' and 'boorish'. The image of the sample 'light', 'sensuous' and 'young' at the case of sample of which laying measurements of the collar was 3cm. Second, at the case of sample whose laying measurements of the collar was 5cm, it was shown that the low location of gorge line made the image of the sample 'soft' and 'short'. On the other hand the image of the sample looked 'hard', 'keen' and 'long' by the high location of gorge line. Third, at the case of sample of which laying measurements of the collar was 7cm, low location of gorge line made the image of the sample look short. However, normal location of gorge line made the image of the sample looked 'fashionable'. The images of the samples of which laying measurements of the collar were 3cm, 5cm and 7cm, respectively, had changed with the angle of gorge line. First, the high angle of gorge line made the image of the sample 'rigid' and 'keen' at the case of sample of which laying measurements of the collar was 3cm. The high angle of gorge line made the image of the sample looked 'boorish' and 'singular'.