Bones quality indices in laying hens fed diets with a high level of DDGS and supplemented with selected feed additives

Abstract

An experiment with 192 caged ISA Brown laying hens, fed a diet containing a high level of corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), was conducted to determine the influence of selected feed additives on biomechanical and geometrical indices of tibia and femur bones. At 26 weeks of age hens were randomly assigned to 8 treatments with 12 replicates (cages of two hens). To week 55, hens were fed isocaloric and isonitrogenous experimental diets either containing or not containing a high level of DDGS (200 g/kg). The diet containing 200 g/kg of DDGS was supplemented or not supplemented with feed additives, i.e. enzymes (xylanase and phytase), sodium butyrate, probiotic bacteria (L. salivarius), herbal extract mixtures (Taraxaci siccum, Urticae siccum, and Salviae siccum), inulin or chitosan. At week 55, inclusion of DDGS in the diet had no effect on biomechemical (bone breaking strength, yielding load, and stiffness) or geometrical (cortex thickness, cross-section area, weight, and length) indices of tibia and femur bones (P > 0.05). Some of the supplements used had a beneficial effect on bone quality in hens fed the diet with a high level of DDGS. Thus, the addition of probiotic bacteria or herb extracts increased the breaking strength of femurs and breaking strength and yielding load of tibias (P < 0.05). The results of this study indicate that DDGS may be included to a level of 20% in the diet of laying hens without any negative influence on bone quality, while such feed additives as probiotic bacteria and herbal extracts may improve the selected biomechanical indices of bone quality of layers fed diets with a high level of DDGS.

Citrullus lanatus essential oils inclusion in diets elicit nutraceutical effects on egg production, egg quality, and physiological characteristics in layer hens

“…Bone health and metabolism of laying hens are of major concern to egg producers, veterinarians, nutritionists, and geneticists ( Güz et al., 2019 , Kolakshyapati et al., 2019 ). Tibia biomechanical characteristics such as tibia linear measurement bone breaking strength and bone ash ( Świątkiewicz et al., 2014 , Świątkiewicz et al., 2018 ; Zhou et al., 2009 ) are usually used as indicators of mineral adequacy and bone development in broiler diets. In the current study, it was observed that dietary inclusion of C. lanatus seed oil significantly improved TDPE, TW, TAW, and TBS.…”

“…In the current study, it was observed that dietary inclusion of C. lanatus seed oil significantly improved TDPE, TW, TAW, and TBS. In particular, the observed increase in bone breaking force with inclusion of C. lanatus essential oil could be reflective of the ability of the oil to improve the bone health and general welfare of the birds which are supposed to stand for long periods of their productive life ( Świątkiewicz et al., 2014 , Disetlhe et al., 2018 , Kolakshyapati et al., 2019 ). To our knowledge, very few attempt have been made to assess the effects of essential oils on bone development in layer birds.…”

Alpha-Ketoglutarate: An Effective Feed Supplement in Improving Bone Metabolism and Muscle Quality of Laying Hens: A Preliminary Study

“…This sample size was calculated for a two-sided t-test of two groups with an α of 0.05 and power at 0.8, with an effect size of 1.2 [ 50 ]. Available literature data on laying hens show that for these assumptions n = 12 sample size has a power of 80% to detect a change of 5% in tibia breaking strength [ 51 ], a change of 8% in blood serum cholesterol content [ 52 ], and a change of 3% and 7% in duodenum villus length and crypt depth, respectively [ 53 ], assuming a 5% significance level. The normality of the data was tested using the Shapiro-Wilk normality test and the homogeneity of variances was tested using Levene’s test.…”

The Effect of Dietary Rye Inclusion and Xylanase Supplementation on Structural Organization of Bone Constitutive Phases in Laying Hens Fed a Wheat-Corn Diet

“…Over and above genetic, endocrine, and environmental (including the housing system) factors, nutrition is acknowledged to be the most important factor affecting the quality of bones in laying hens, with nutritional factors playing an important role in the regulation of bone homeostasis [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Among others, dietary energy source is widely connected to bone mineralization, remodeling, and mechanical strength [19,20]. Nowadays, corn is the most commonly used energy source in the diets of intensively reared laying hens.…”