Hisex Brown laying hens from 50 to 60 weeks of age
| Livestock Research for Rural Development 31 (10) 2019 | LRRD Misssion | Guide for preparation of papers | LRRD Newsletter | Citation of this paper |
A study was carried out with laying hens from 50-60 weeks age.to determine the effect of vitamins or mixtures vitamins and minerals (VitM) in powder (P) or aqueous form (W) supplementation into drinking water on egg performance and quality. A total of 3600 Hisex Brown laying hens at 50 weeks of age were distributed in a completely randomized design experiment, with 5 treatments and 3 replicates. Each replicate consisted of a line with 60 pens (4 birds/pen). The experimental data were collected for 10 weeks. Treatments were: Basal diet (Cont); vitamins in powder form (VitP); vitamins in aqueous form (VitW); vitamins and minerals in powder form; Vit/MP); vitamins and minerals in aqueous form (Vit/MW. All supplements were supplied in drinking water at 2g/liter (P) or 2ml/liter (W) .
The average daily feed intake was not affected by vitamins or mixture of vitamins and minerals. Egg production and feed conversion were better when vitamins were given in in aqueous form and for combined vitamins and minerals. The combined supplements supported higher proportion of double yolk eggs, fewer broken eggs and egg yolks with more pronounced yellowness compared with the control group. It is concluded that supplementation of vitamins or mixture of vitamins and minerals in aqueous form into drinking water could improve egg production, egg shell thickness, and egg yolk color.
Keywords: drinking water, egg quality, hen day production
Poultry production is now developing and ranks second in animal husbandry industry after pig production in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam. Laying hens form the most important sector of the poultry production. Hisex Brown laying hens have earlier age at first lay (19-21 weeks age), then reach the peak at 26 to 30 weeks age and maintain production to around 38-40 weeks age. After 40 weeks of age the egg performance slowly declines, thus laying hens are normally culled after 72-76 weeks of age due to low egg production (Ali Haider and Nath 2014). Improving the egg production in the declining phase of laying is important to improve benefits for farmers.
In order to achieve high productions, feed is the main factor that should be considered, in which vitamins and minerals have an additional dimension. They are required in adequate levels to enable the animal to efficiently utilize all other nutrients in the feed. Therefore, optimum nutrition occurs only when the bird is offered the correct mix of macro- and micronutrients in the feed and is able to efficiently utilize those nutrients for its growth, health, reproduction and survival (Zang et al 2011). Normally, vitamins and minerals are included in commercial feed (Sugiharto et al 2018), which are sometime stored for a long time which may reduce the efficient utilization of vitamins. In addition, raising hens in hot weather can cause stress that in general increases mineral and vitamin mobilization from tissues and their excretion, which may exacerbate a marginal vitamin and mineral deficiency, which may lead to a series of health problems (Nobakht 2014). Therefore, how to supply vitamins and minerals in powder or aqueous form are questions for producers.
In this study we aimed to evaluate the effect of supplementation of vitamins and minerals in powder or aqueous form into drinking water on egg production, and egg quality parameters during the late stage of laying.
The source of vitamins included vitamins A, D, E and B; and of minerals included micro and macro minerals. The experiment was conducted in an Experimental laying farm in Ô Môn district, Can Tho city in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam from November 2018 to January 2019. The hen house was a tunnel ventilated house with 3 floor pens in a line. A total of 3600 Hisex Brown laying hens were housed in the pens; the hens were 50 weeks age and the experiment continued to 60 weeks age. Water was supplied ad-libitum. Feed formulation and composition are shown in Table 1.The study was arranged as a completely randomized design with 5 treatments and 3 replicates, each replicate consisted of a line with 60 pens (4 birds/pen).
Feed formulation and composition of basal dietary are showed in. The basal diet (Table 1) was formulated with metabolizable energy 11.4 MJ/kg and crude protein of 16.8 %. Feed ingredients included: maize, broken rice, rice bran, fish meal, soya bean meal and premix of vitamins at low level. The supplementation products were supplied in drinking water every day at levels of 2ml/liter (W) and 2g/liter (P) of drinking water.
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Table 1. Feed formulation and composition of the basal diet |
|
|
Ingredients |
% |
|
Rice bran |
10.0 |
|
Maize |
52.0 |
|
Broken rice |
8.0 |
|
Soya bean meal |
20 |
|
Fish meal |
5.0 |
|
Premix-vitamin1 |
1.0 |
|
Limestone |
4.0 |
|
Chemical composition,% |
|
|
DM |
88.0 |
|
Crude protein |
16.8 |
|
Ether extract |
5.03 |
|
Ash |
10.2 |
|
Crude fiber |
5.0 |
|
Ca |
3.0 |
|
P |
0.7 |
|
NaCl |
0.2 |
|
NFE |
63.0 |
|
ME (MJ/kg feed) |
11.4 |
The treatments were:
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Table 2. Composition of supplement products (Supplied per kg or liter) |
||||
|
Ingredients |
VitP |
VitW |
VitMP |
VitMW |
|
Vitamin A |
10,000,000 IU |
10,000,000 IU |
10,000,000 IU |
10,000,000 IU |
|
Vitamin E |
2,000 mg |
2,000 mg |
2,000 mg |
2,000 mg |
|
Vitamin C |
- |
- |
50,000 mg |
50,000 mg |
|
Vitamin D3 |
2,500,000 IU |
2,500,000 IU |
2,500,000 IU |
2,500,000 IU |
|
Calcium pantothenol |
- |
- |
10,000 mg |
10,000 mg |
|
Vitamin B5 |
10,000 mg |
10,000 mg |
- |
- |
|
Methionine |
40,000 mg |
40,000 mg |
100,000 mg |
100,000 mg |
|
Vitamin H |
250 mg |
250 mg |
- |
- |
|
Zinc |
13,500 mg |
13,500 mg |
13,500 mg |
13,500 mg |
|
Sodium |
- |
- |
20,000 mg |
20,000 mg |
|
Manganese |
- |
- |
756 mg |
756 mg |
|
Magnesium |
- |
- |
1.32 mg |
1.32 mg |
|
Iron |
- |
- |
990 mg |
990 mg |
|
Copper |
- |
- |
275 mg |
275 mg |
|
Cobalt |
- |
- |
220 mg |
220 mg |
|
Calcium |
- |
- |
4,070 mg |
4,070 mg |
During the experimental period, the average feed intake, hen day production, and egg weight were recorded daily. Egg mass and feed conversion ratio were calculated weekly. Egg mass was determined by calculating hen day production x egg weight. Feed conversion ratio was determined by calculating feed intake/egg mass. Eggs were classified as broken, abnormal or double yolk.
At the 55-week stage, 300 eggs (60 from each treatments) were randomly collected for egg quality analysis. Egg shape index was determined by calculating (egg width / egg length) x 100 (Sandi et al 2013). After that, eggs were broken, egg contents were poured onto a horizontal glass. Albumin, yolk and shell were separated and weighed individually (Englmaierová et al 2014). Shell thickness was determined by calculating the mean of triplicate measurement from different sides of shell (Güçlü et al 2008). Haugh Unit was measured using formula HU=100 x log (H - 1.7 W 0.37 + 7.57) (Saleh 2013).
Data were analyzed by ANOVA using the General Liner Model (GLM) of Minitab Statistical Software Version 16. The statistical model was:
Yij = µ + αi + eij
Where Yij is egg performances or egg quality; µ is overall mean averaged over all treatments; αi is effect of treatment; eij is random error associated with treatment and replicate within treatment.
The chemical composition of the feed was determined following Association of Official Analytical Chemists methods (AOAC 1990).Yolk color was recorded using a colorimeter (Chromameter Minolta, CR-400 Head, DP-400/ Japan), which indicated degrees of lightness of a yolk sample (L), red-ness (a) and yellow-ness (b).
Hen day production and feed conversion during the period between 50 and 60 weeks of age is presented in The hen day production declined with increasing hen age from 50 to 60 weeks age (Table 3). This is in agreement with the report of Seidler (2003) who showed that egg production of commercial laying hens often starts to slowly decrease after 40 weeks of age. The reducing of egg production is quick or slow dependence on nutrition and management that laying hens received. This results demonstrated that because of supplemented products in the drinking water made the slowly reducing of egg production after 50 weeks age.
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| Figure 1. Effect of vitamin-mineral supplementation
on egg production of Hisex Brown laying hens from 50 to 60 weeks of age |
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Table 3. Hen day egg production and feed intake of laying hens from 50 to 60 weeks age |
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|
Variables |
Cont |
Treatments |
SEM |
p |
|||
|
VitP |
VitW |
VitMP |
VitMW |
||||
|
Feed intake, g/bird/day |
125.4 |
125.6 |
123.7 |
125.8 |
124.7 |
1.23 |
0.06 |
|
Hen day production, % |
76.0b |
77.4ab |
78.2a |
77.8a |
78.6a |
0.59 |
0.04 |
|
Egg weight, g/egg |
60.8 |
60.7 |
60.1 |
61.0 |
60.4 |
0.44 |
0.09 |
|
Egg mass, g/bird |
46.3 |
47.0 |
47.0 |
47.7 |
47.5 |
0.80 |
0.49 |
|
FCR, g feed/g egg |
2.71a |
2.67ab |
2.63b |
2.64b |
2.62b |
0.02 |
0.04 |
|
Cont:No addition in drinking water (DW);
VitP:Vitamin (powder) in DW; VitW: Vitamin
(aqueous ) in DW; |
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There was no effect on the feed intake of the hens in all treatment (Table 3); this result is consistent with research by Afshar et al (2006) and Nobakht (2013), that mineral and vitamin premix supplementation in the diets did not affect the amount of feed consumed by the hens.
There were improvements in egg production (Table 3; Figure 1) with vitamins in aqueous form or when vitamins were included together with minerals in powder or aqueous form. This may be because aqueous-based vitamins are more effective than powder preparations when mixed into drinking water. Karimi et al (2010) reported that adding probiotic into drinking water was better than adding into feed due to better solubility.
There was no effect of treatments on egg weight and egg mass, which is in agreement with research from Nobakht (2014), who showed that different levels of dietary mineral and vitamin premixes did not affect the egg weight.
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Table 4. Effect of supplementation products on broken eggs, average live gain of laying hens |
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|
Variables |
Cont |
Treatments |
SEM |
p |
|||
|
VitP |
VitW |
VitMP |
VitMW |
||||
|
Broken egg proportion,% |
2.35 |
2.15 |
1.56 |
1.98 |
1.45 |
0.48 |
0.13 |
|
Unnormal egg, % |
0.39 |
0.21 |
0.26 |
0.28 |
0.30 |
0.12 |
0.26 |
|
Double yolk egg,% |
1.17c |
2.45a |
1.83b |
2.40a |
2.19ab |
0.23 |
0.04 |
|
Hen weight gain, g/d |
4.15 |
4.65 |
4.21 |
4.90 |
5.10 |
0.38 |
0.07 |
The proportion of broken eggs and double yolk eggs were reduced in supplemented diets compared to the control (Table 4). This is similar research from Zang et al (2011) who reported that hens receiving the vitamins had fewer dirty and cracked eggs.
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Table 5. Effect of vitamin-mineral supplementation on egg quality |
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|
Variables |
Cont |
Treatments |
SEM |
p |
|||
|
VitP |
VitW |
VitMP |
VitMW |
||||
|
Egg weight, g |
60.1 |
60.6 |
60.2 |
61.0 |
60.5 |
0.552 |
0.11 |
|
Egg shape index |
78.5 |
78.2 |
78.4 |
77.4 |
78.6 |
0.213 |
0.51 |
|
Egg shell thickness, mm |
0.37b |
0.39a |
0.38ab |
0.38ab |
0.38ab |
0.040 |
0.03 |
|
Yolk index |
0.46 |
0.46 |
0.45 |
0.48 |
0.46 |
0.004 |
0.22 |
|
Albumen index |
0.08 |
0.08 |
0.08 |
0.08 |
0.09 |
0.002 |
0.07 |
|
Haugh unit (HU) |
82.4 |
81.5 |
83.2 |
81.9 |
83.2 |
0.758 |
0.06 |
|
Yolk color |
|||||||
|
L* |
48.8 |
47.4 |
47.2 |
47.2 |
48.0 |
0.501 |
0.23 |
|
a* |
6.59 |
6.18 |
6.35 |
6.84 |
6.25 |
0.284 |
0.41 |
|
b* |
43.5b |
43.8b |
43.7b |
45.3a |
44.9a |
0.341 |
0.04 |
|
*Lightness (L), red-ness (a) and yellow-ness (b) |
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The egg shape, yolk and albumin index did not differ as a result of vitamin-mineral supplementation Table 5). The yellowness of the yolk was increased by combined mineral and vitamin supplementation, but not when these supplements were given separately.
The author would like to thank the manager of the Experimental farm for supplying all materials of the experiment. Sincere gratitude and thanks to Mr. Tri; Mr.Thach and Ms.Phuong for taking care of the experiment.
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Received 22 July 2019; Accepted 15 September 2019; Published 2 October 2019