• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.405-410
• /
• 2005

To analyze and identify selected risk factors for infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) infection in the growing and laying period of laying-hen flocks, a longitudinal field study was conducted with 27 commercial flocks reared in three provinces of Korea during the period from May 2003 to April 2004. Using monitored data for IBV infection status among study flocks we computed the multivariate odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding confidence intervals (CIs), and population attributable risks (PARs). Multivariate logistic regression showed significant risk increments for: continuous entry of chick (OR=1.9, 95% CI, 0.7-69.1) and operation years of the layer house greater than or equal to 5 years (OR=3.2, 95%CI, 1.6-389.9). No significant interaction was found between variables. The PAR suggested that continuous entry of chick (PAR=32%) and ${\geq}5years$ of house operation (PAR=84%) had the highest impacts on IB presence in laying-hen flocks under study. Of the two significant factors, however, operation year of the layer house lacks an easy applicability in preventing IB control strategies, and the possibility of confounder cannot be ruled out.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.267-275
• /
• 1994

Three dietary ME levels of 3,200, 2,900 and 2,600 kcal /kg in the same 13% single-stage low protein diet were compared to evaluate the effect of ME levels of grower diets on egg-type pullet growth and subsequent laying performance. As the ME levels of grower diets decreased, cumulative feed and protein consumptions increased(P<0.05), however, the ME intake and body weight at 18 wk of age decreased(P<0.05). Grower feed cost decreased as the dietary ME level was decreased, but no significant difference was found among dietary ME levels of grower diets. During the laying period, sexual maturity, hen-day egg production and average egg weight were not significantly affected by the ME levels of grower diet, however, daily feed intake and feed required per egg decreased as the dietary ME level of grower diet was reduced(P<0.05). Results of this study indicate that pullets can be reared on the low ME diet of 2,600 kcal /kg and it would he economical to utilize the low energy diet during the growing period when they are reared on a 13% single-stage low protein diet.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.58 no.4
• /
• pp.193-199
• /
• 2018

As animal welfare issue becomes important, the European Union bans conventional cages for laying hens from 2012. So the alternative housing systems like floor pens, aviaries or free range systems have been suggested. From 2011 to 2014, we monitored 20 welfare-oriented laying hen farms in South Korea to figure out serological status of major viral diseases. During this period, total 3,219 blood samples were collected from the randomly selected chickens to test and evaluate the hemagglutination inhibition titers for low pathogenic avian influenza, Newcastle disease and egg drop syndrome '76. A total of 2,926 blood samples were tested through enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to assess the serological status of infectious bronchitis (IB). The distribution of ELISA titers for IB was various from almost 0 to 20,000 through the all weeks of age. Also, the antibody coefficient of variation for most of the diseases in this study was higher than those of typical cage layers. As this study was the first surveillance for major avian viral diseases of the animal welfare-oriented farms in South Korea, the results obtained from this study will help to determine what information and resources are needed to maintain better biosecurity and to improve the health and welfare of laying hen flocks.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.12
• /
• pp.1661-1666
• /
• 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
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.235-240
• /
• 2005

Two hundred and eighty-eight 21-week-old Hyline Brown laying hens were randomly allotted to 9 treatments, 32 birds for each treatment. A 3${\times}$3 (chromium${\times}$L-carnitine) factorial experiment was designed to investigate the single and interactive effects of adding yeast chromium (0, 400 and 600 ${\mu}g/kg$) and L-carnitine (0, 50 and 100 mg/kg) to corn-soybean diets on lipid metabolism of laying hens for 7 weeks. The results showed that 600 ${\mu}g/kg$ chromium or 100 mg/kg L-carnitine had significant effects on most indices of lipid metabolism (p<0.05 or 0.01). There were significant interactions on the concentration of liver triglycerides, egg yolk cholesterol, abdominal fat percentage between chromium and L-carnitine (p=0.0003-0.0500). Adding 400 ${\mu}g/kg$ chromium and 100 mg/kg Lcarnitine simultaneously was the best for reducing egg yolk cholesterol and adding 400 ${\mu}g/kg$ chromium and 50 mg/kg L-carnitine at the same time was the best for reducing abdominal fat percentage. There was no side effect on production performance of laying hens while chromium or (and) L-carnitine reduced liver lipid, abdominal fat and egg yolk cholesterol.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.53-60
• /
• 2012

This work was conducted to evaluate the laying performance of Korean Native Ducks (KND) Pure-Line (PL). A total of 400 female pullets were hatched from PL to keep in National Institute of Animal Science, Korea. Twenty weeks old PL female ducks were divided into 4 groups (5 replications/group, 20 head/replications). Four groups were compared in a $2{\times}2$ factorial arrangement with strain (White strains, WW; Celadon strains, CC) and house type (flat house, cage house). On first egg laying day, CC strain laid eggs earlier compared to WW strain (P<0.01), but there was no significant difference between flat and cage house. Egg weight (EW) and body weight (BW) at first egg laying day have no difference among strains and houses. BW of CC strain was higher than WW strain at the age of 30 week (P<0.01). Weekly feed intake (FI) have no difference between flat and cage house, but FI of WW strain was high compared to CC strain during 20~30 weeks. There was no significant difference on EW between CC and WW strains, but EW was low at flat house compared to cage house (P<0.05). Weekly egg productions of WW strain and flat house were lower than CC strain and cage house, respectively (P<0.01). Finally, These results can provide the information that needed to introducing new strains.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.12 no.5
• /
• pp.776-782
• /
• 1999

Two Bangladeshi varieties of yellow corn-'Barnali' and 'Khaibhutta' were chemically analysed and used in the diet of laying chicken to determine their replacement value for wheat. Both the new varieties of yellow corn were found to be good sources of energy and the CP contents were comparable to wheat. Forty two, 29-week old randomly selected Starcross Brown commercial pullets were assigned to 7 dietary treatments with 6 replicates, each being an experimental unit. Diets were formulated replacing wheat quantitatively by two varieties of yellow corn either 0, 50, 75 or 100 per cent from a wheat based control diet. The production performance of laying hens fed diets formulated with Barnali or Khaibhutta at different dietary levels during an experimental period of 16 weeks was satisfactory and comparable to wheat based diet. Except egg yolk colour, the other internal arid external egg quality characteristics at 8th and 16th weeks of the experiment did not differ significantly. The egg yolk colour improved significantly (p<0.01) by feeding both the new varieties of corn and the degree of pigmentation of yolk increased as the dietary levels of corn increased at the expense of wheat. Considering laying performance, the new varieties of yellow corn, Barnali or Khaibhutta can be used in layer diet as replacement of wheat. Such a replacement would better that wheat-based diet in terms of egg yolk pigmentation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.21 no.8
• /
• pp.1164-1170
• /
• 2008

In this study, the effects of propolis and vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) supplementation in diets were investigated on feed intake (FI), body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion rate (FCR) and digestibility and on egg production and qualities (weight, mortality, shell thickness) in laying hens exposed to heat stress. A total of 150 Hyline White Leghorn, aged 42 weeks, hens was divided into five groups of 30 hens. Chicks were randomly divided into 1 positive control, 1 control and 3 treatment groups. The chicks were kept in cages in temperature-controlled rooms at $22^{\circ}C$ for 24 h/d (positive control, Thermoneutral, TN group) or $34^{\circ}C$ for 9 h/d from 08.00-17.00 h followed by $22^{\circ}C$ for 15 h (control, heat stress, HS group) and fed a basal diet or basal diet supplemented with vitamin C (250 mg/kg of L- ascorbic acid/kg of diet) or two levels of propolis (2 and 5 g of ethanol extracted propolis/kg of diet). Increased FI (p<0.05) and improvement in FCR (p<0.05), hen day egg (p<0.05) and egg weight (p<0.05) were found in Vitamin C and propolis-supplemented laying hens reared under heat stress conditions. Mortality rate was higher in the control group than TN, vitamin C and propolis groups (p<0.05). Digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein and ether extract improved with increasing of both dietary vitamin C and propolis (p<0.05). Vitamin C or propolis supplementation did not affect either the percentage shape index, yolk index or haugh unit and albumen index (p>0.05). However, the egg shell thickness and egg shell weight appeared to be increased in Vitamin C and propolis groups in comparison to HS group birds (p<0.05). In conclusion, dietary supplementation of laying hens with anti-oxidants (vitamin C and propolis) can attenuate heat stress-induced oxidative damage. These positive effects were evidenced by increased growth performance and digestibility, improvement of egg shell thickness and egg weight in comparison to non-supplemented birds. Moreover, supplementation with propolis (5 g/kg diet) was the most efficient treatment.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.21 no.8
• /
• pp.1196-1200
• /
• 2008

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the physiological changes of laying hens subjected to feed removal during induced molting while received probiotics in the drinking water. Post-molt performance and egg quality criteria were also studied. Ninety 78-week-old Hy-line W36 laying hens were divided into two treatment groups according to equal body weight and subjected to induced molting by continuous feed removal until around 30% BW reduction. The experiment lasted 12 wks consisting of 4-wk molting and 8-wk post-molt periods. Treatment 1 received no probiotics and was considered as the control. Treatment 2 was similar to the control except that hens received probiotics in the drinking water at 400 mg/L during feed deprivation. The results indicated that hens in both groups went out of production by Day 5. However, hens received probiotics reached 5 and 50% egg production sooner than the control (30 and 52 days vs. 31 and 54 days). Starvation during molting increased heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratio, hematocrit and plasma T4 and $Na^+$ levels while plasma T3 and Cl- levels were decreased. Probiotics had no significant impact on BW reduction during molt. Post-molt egg production and egg mass were higher in hens which previously received probiotics, but these responses were not significant. However, feed conversion ratio was significantly better in hens which received probiotics. Hematocrit, plasma thyroid hormone concentrations (T3 and T4) and plasma $Na^+$, $K^+$ and Cl- levels during molting were not significantly influenced by supplementation of probiotics. However, H/L ratio showed a significant (p<0.05) reduction in birds which received probiotics suggesting beneficial effects of this product for feed-deprived laying hens. No significant difference was observed in post-molt egg quality criteria.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.249-255
• /
• 2008

The experiment was conducted to determine effect of the mixed herbal medicine for the substitution of antibiotics on the performance of laying hens. Day old hyline 1,500 layer chicks were randomly assigned to 4 treatments. Control were 600 chicks and there were three treatments of each 300 chicks. The 4 treatments were as follows: the mixed herbal medicine 0.1%(T-1), 0.3%(T-2) and 0.5%(T-3) after removed antibiotics on commercial feed and commercial feed( control) from 5th week to 13th week, each treatment was replicated 3 times and from 14th week to 18th week. Each 100 hens of the mixed herbal medicine 0.1%(CT-1), 0.3%(CT-2) and 0.5%(CT-3) were moved to cage. Body weight were measured on 4th, 8th, 13th week and feed intake, mortality were measured on every weeks. Body weight at fourth week, all treatments tended to be higher than control and T-3 statistically was highest(p<0.01). On 8th week, also treatments statistically high and T-1 was highest(p<0.01). But 12th week, there was not significantly different among treatments. Therefore it will be possible that the mixed herbal medicine substitute for antibiotics after vaccination. Mortality was not different between treatment and control overall rearing period. Early laying period($19{\sim}41wk$), T-2 showed highest feed intake(107.1g) among treatments, later laying period($42{\sim}77wk$), T-1 showed highest feed intake(134.3g) and was not any different among each treatments.