Effects of Chinese Herbal Medicine Additives on Laying Performance, Egg Quality and Yolk Nutrition of Laying Hens During Late Laying Period
Effects of Chinese Herbal Medicine Additives on Laying Performance, Egg Quality and Yolk Nutrition of Laying Hens During Late Laying Period
Haigang Wu1,2, Bingjie Ma1, Jinni Liu1, Fei Zhang3, Kaiwei Deng1 and Hualing Gong1,2*
ABSTRACT
We investigated the effects of different proportions of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) additives on laying performance, egg quality and yolk nutrition of aged laying hens. We utilized a mixture of 8 components that included the Fabaceae family members Radix astragali and Sophora flavescens as well as dandelion, pine needle powder, marigold, rosemary, Shenqu (a leavened mixture) and Gardenia jasminoides. Our study groups included 2000 healthy 350 days old laying hens that were randomly divided into 4 groups and standard feed was supplemented with 0 (control), 0.5, 1 and 1.5 % additive. The average laying rates for the test groups increased by 0.65, 1.68 and 0.54 %, respectively (P > 0.05) while egg breakage decreased by 14.19, 20.34 and 18.64% (P < 0.05) while feed: Egg ratios decreased by 3.46, 5.63 and 0.87, respectively. Yolks were a deeper yellow in the presence of the additives and yolk viscosity increased significantly (P < 0.05) by 40, 77 and 74%, respectively. Compared with the control group, crude fat, methionine, isoleucine, valine, aspartic acid and proline, Crude fat increased by 6.17, 7.18 and 7.09 respectively (P < 0.05). This study provides evidence that the overall laying performance of aged hens was improved with CHM additions and the effects were dosage-dependent with an optimal dosage of 1 % w/w.
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