Effects of dietary theabrownins on production performance, egg quality, and ovarian function of laying hens with different ages.

Poult Sci

Key Laboratory of Animal Disease-Resistance Nutrition, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Animal Nutrition Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China. Electronic address:

Published: June 2023

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study examined how theabrownins (TB) affect egg production, quality, and ovarian function in laying hens of different ages, specifically 47 and 67 weeks old.
  • Results indicated that older hens had lower egg production rates and poorer egg quality compared to younger hens, but TB supplementation improved these metrics and reduced the incidence of unqualified eggs.
  • Additionally, TB enhanced the overall health markers in older hens, such as increased GSH levels and hormone concentrations, which suggests potential benefits of TB in improving the reproductive performance of older laying hens.

Article Abstract

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of theabrownins (TB) on production performance, egg quality, and ovarian function of laying hens at different ages. A total of 240 Lohmann laying hens were assigned in a 2 × 2 factorial design, which encompassed 2 layers ages (47-wk-old and 67-wk-old) and 2 dietary levels of TB (0 and 100 mg/kg) for 12 wk. Results showed that older layers had lower laying rate, egg mass, and higher feed-to-egg ratio (F/E), egg weight and unqualified egg rate than the younger layers (P < 0.01) during all the experimental period. The effect of TB was found to increase egg laying rate and feed efficiency during 5 to 8 wk, 9 to 12 wk and the overall phases and decreased unqualified egg rate during 1 to 4 wk and the overall phases (P ≤ 0.05). The eggshell quality (strength, thickness), albumen quality (albumen height and Haugh unit) of eggs from older layers were decreased during overall phases (P ≤ 0.05). TB increased eggshell strength during all phases and enhanced eggshell thickness at the end of wk 4 and 8 and increased albumen height and Haugh unit at the end of wk 8 and 12 of older layers (P ≤ 0.05). In addition, TB also increased egg quality of older layers after 14 d storage. A decrease in the serum concentration of progesterone, melatonin, follicle stimulating hormone, estradiol was observed in the older compared to the younger ones (P < 0.05), while the increase in serum concentration of progesterone, melatonin, anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) were more emphasized when older hens received TB supplemented diet (P < 0.05). The older layer demonstrated lower the concentration of glutathione (GSH) (P < 0.05). And the activity of glutathione-s-transferase (GST) was significantly decreased in layers under 67-wk-old (P <0.05). The increase in concentration of GSH and the decrease in concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) were more pronounced when TB were supplemented in 67-wk-old layers (P ≤ 0.05). Layers at 67-wk-old had lower mRNA expression of Heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) (P < 0.01) in ovary. Dietary TB supplementation upregulated mRNA gene expression of HO-1, Nuclear factor E2 related factor 2 (Nrf2), Quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) (P < 0.01). Dietary TB upregulated mRNA expression of ovarian reproductive hormone receptor (estrogen receptor 1 [ESR1] and steroidogenic acute regulatory protein 1 [StAR1]]; P < 0.01). The results suggest feeding TB (100 mg/kg) could improve the egg production rate, egg quality, and antioxidant capacity of the ovary. Moreover, the effect of TB was more pronounced in older layers (64-wk-old vs. 47-wk-old).

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10106962PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2023.102545DOI Listing

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