Hens That Exhibit Poorer Feed Efficiency Produce Eggs with Lower Albumen Quality and Are Prone to Being Overweight
| Autor: | Sonia Liu, Doreen Onyinye Anene, Cormac J O'Shea, Peter C. Thomson, Peter J. Groves, Yeasmin Akter |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
amino acids
General Veterinary Chemistry Veterinary medicine laying hens egg quality Egg albumen Overweight Body weight Feed conversion ratio Article Animal science QL1-991 performance traits SF600-1100 feed efficiency medicine Animal Science and Zoology Composition (visual arts) medicine.symptom Zoology Haugh unit |
| Zdroj: | Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI Animals Volume 11 Issue 10 Animals, Vol 11, Iss 2986, p 2986 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 2076-2615 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/ani11102986 |
| Popis: | Feed efficiency (FE) is an important measure of productivity in the layer industry however, little is known about how FE differs between individual hens during the egg-laying cycle and the implications for egg quality parameters. Individual 25-week-old ISA Brown hens were observed for 42 days, ranked into three FE groups (n = 48 per High (HFE), Medium (MFE) and Low (LFE) FE groups and then monitored later in the laying cycle from 35–40 weeks. The groups exhibited different feed to egg conversion ratios (p < 0.001) from 35–40 weeks. Average daily feed intake and body weight were highest (p < 0.001) in the LFE group compared to the MFE and HFE groups, while albumen height, Haugh unit and amino acid concentrations of the albumen were significantly higher in the HFE groups compared to the LFE cohort (p < 0.001). This study concludes that FE status established in early lay is a stable variable until at least 40 weeks of age, and overweight, mid-laying hens that had poor FE produced inferior egg albumen quality measurements and composition. The distinct traits of the highly efficient hens and the poor feed efficient hens may provide important information to improving productivity in egg production. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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