Abstract
The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of betaine on productive performance, egg quality, and jejunal tight junction-related gene expression in laying hens raised under hot environmental conditions. A total of 216 laying hens of 32 weeks of age were allotted to 1 of 3 dietary treatments with 6 replicates and 12 hens per replicate in a completely randomized design. A commercial-type basal diet was prepared, and 3.0 or 6.0 g/kg of betaine was supplemented to the basal diet. Diets were fed to hens for 6 weeks. Hens were raised during the hot season (the end of July to the middle of September), and the average daily room temperature and relative humidity were 25.8 ± 2.0 °C and 74.8 ± 7.3%, respectively. At the end of the experiment, 2 hens per replicate were euthanized to collect jejunal mucosa samples. Results indicated that a tendency (linear, P = 0.094) for increased hen-day egg production was observed as inclusion amounts of betaine in diets were increased. Increasing inclusion amounts of betaine in diets decreased (linear, P < 0.05) broken and shell-less egg production. Egg quality was not influenced by dietary treatments, except for a quadratic increase (P < 0.05) in eggshell strength by increasing inclusion amounts of betaine in diets. Increasing inclusion amounts of betaine in diets increased the expressions of occludin (OCLN; linear, P < 0.01) and claudin-1 (CLDN-1; linear, P = 0.062), but decreased the expressions of zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1; linear and quadratic, P < 0.05) and junctional adhesion molecule B (JAM-2; linear and quadratic, P < 0.01) in the jejunal mucosa. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of betaine improves laying performance and selectively modifies in jejunal tight junction-related gene expressions in laying hens raised under hot environmental conditions.
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