Effects of Bacillus subtilis C‐3102 on production, hatching performance, egg quality, serum antioxidant capacity and immune response of laying breeders

Abstract

To investigate the supplemental effects of Bacillus subtilis C‐3102 on the production, hatching performance, egg quality, serum antioxidant capacity and immune response of laying breeders, a total of 480 Xuefeng black‐bone (25‐week‐old) hens were randomly assigned into four treatment groups: Hens fed the basal diets with 0 (CON), 3.0 × 105 (BS‐1), 6.0 × 105 cfu/g (BS‐2) and 9.0 × 105 (BS‐3) cfu/g of B. subtilis C‐3102. As the B. subtilis C‐3102 level increased, egg weight (linear, p < 0.01; quadratic, p = 0.003), fertility (linear, p = 0.021; quadratic, p = 0.059), hatchability (linear, p = 0.038; quadratic, p = 0.119) and yolk colour (linear, p = 0.006; quadratic, p = 0.021) increased in a linear or quadratic manner. Yolk index increased quadratically (linear, p = 0.054; quadratic, p = 0.017), and eggshell thickness (linear, p = 0.036; quadratic, p = 0.128), the activity of GSH‐Px (linear, p = 0.024; quadratic, p = 0.078), the concentration of IgM (linear, p = 0.016; quadratic, p = 0.056) and the level of AIV‐Ab (linear, p = 0.034; quadratic, p = 0.103) in the serum increased linearly as dietary supplementation of B. subtilis C‐3102 increased. The results showed that dietary treatments did not affect egg production, feed conversion ratio, egg mass, hatchability of fertile eggs, eggshell‐breaking strength, egg‐shape index, yolk percentage, Haugh unit, T‐SOD, T‐AOC, MDA, IgA and IgG concentrations and the level of NDV‐Ab in the serum. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of 9.0 × 105 cfu/g B. subtilis C‐3102 in laying breeders diets may be a feasible means of effectively increasing egg weight, fertility and hatchability, and improving egg quality such as eggshell thickness, yolk index and yolk colour. Besides, B. subtilis C‐3102 can enhance the activity of GSH‐Px, the concentration of IgM and the level of AIV‐Ab in the serum.

Use of encapsulated Bacillus subtilis and essential oils to improve antioxidant and immune status of blood and production and hatching performance of laying hens

“…Therefore, we assumed that BSEO have no significant effect on ovomucin content, and may be beneficial in extending the shelf life of the eggs via improving yolk index, this finding was similar to our previous study with result that dietary BS linearly increased yolk index (Liu et al 2019). Unexpectedly, the supplementation of BSEO decreased eggshell thickness in a linear manner, which was contrary to the result of most researches (Abdel-Wareth 2016; Liu et al 2019). And, the value of eggshell strength decreased with an increased BSEO supplementation.…”

“…Additionally, a noteworthy improvement of the activities oxidative stress and immune response in chicken (Abramowicz et al 2019;Abudabos et al 2019;Park et al 2020), duck (Zhang et al 2016), and quail (Abdel-Moneim et al 2020) has been demonstrated. Furthermore, our previous studies also found that dietary supplementation of 9.0 Â 10 5 CFU/g BS effectively increased egg weight, fertility and hatchability, and improved egg quality in laying hens (Liu et al 2019).…”

“…on the production performance of laying hens (Forte et al 2016). Liu et al (2019) and Bozkurt et al (2009) found that dietary supplementation with BS or EO did not significantly influence on feed conversion ratio and egg production. The inconsistent results may be attributed to the different supplementation dosages, sources, diet composition, age, and species.…”

“…A total of 60 pedigree roosters were fed at 06:00 am and the semen was collected at 3:00 pm. About 2.5 mL semen from 10 cocks was collected and slowly mixed with the same amount of diluent, and then fertilised 35 lL per hen as described by Liu et al (2019). To keep the sperm vigour, the whole process was completed within 15 min.…”

“…The immunisation program included vaccination against Newcastle disease (day 110, Intramuscular injection, 0.3 mL/per hen), and avian influenza disease (day 18, 85, and 210, Intramuscular injection, 0.5 mL/ per) as described by Liu et al (2019). At the end of the experiment, after 12 h of feed withdrawal, 2 hens were randomly selected from each replicate.…”