Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the effects of dietary oregano essential oils on 150 30-week-old Hy-Line Layers’ productive performance, egg quality characteristics, cecal microbiota, digestive enzyme activities, mucosa structure of the duodenum and jejunum and glucose and small peptides transporters expression in the duodenum and jejunum. All hens were allocated into one of five different groups: negative control (NC; basal diet only), antibiotics control (CS; basal diet plus 100 mg/kg of 10% colistin sulfate) and treatments I, II, and III (basal diet supplemented with 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg oregano essential oils, respectively). The results showed that the laying rate, average egg weight, feed conversion ratio and the activities of amylase and trypsin were significantly improved by a diet supplemented with 100 mg/kg oregano essential oils (P 0.05), significantly increased duodenum villus-height-to-crypt-depth ratios (P 0.05).
Highlights
It has been widely recognized that the presence of intestinal diseases, such as bacterial and viral infections, imbalances of the gut flora and coccidiosis, can affect nutrient utilization adversely and reduce the production performance of laying hens
The results showed that the laying rate, average egg weight, feed conversion ratio and the activities of amylase and trypsin were significantly improved by a diet supplemented with 100 mg/kg oregano essential oils (P < 0.01)
The glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2), peptide transporter 1 (PepT1) and sodium-glucose cotransporter 1 (SGLT1) gene expression levels in the duodenum and jejunum were significantly increased in laying hens on a diet supplemented with 100 mg/kg oregano essential oils (P < 0.01)
Summary
It has been widely recognized that the presence of intestinal diseases, such as bacterial and viral infections, imbalances of the gut flora and coccidiosis, can affect nutrient utilization adversely and reduce the production performance of laying hens. To prevent intestinal diseases and improve production performance, a variety of feed additives, especially antibiotics, have been widely used in the poultry industry for several decades. Phytogenic additives, which are found in a wide variety of plants, spices and their derivatives, positively affect the quality of products, production performance and animal health and have been recognized as safe in the food industry [3]. Hashemipour discovered that feed supplementation with thymol and carvacrol has a positive effect on broilers It enhanced performance, increased antioxidant enzyme activities, retarded lipid oxidation, and enhanced digestive enzyme activities [9]. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of oregano essential oils as a laying hen feed supplement on the production performance, egg quality, cecal flora, morphological parameters, intestinal digestive enzyme activities and nutrition transport
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