Abstract
ABSTRACTBased on a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial, the effects of three dietary supplemental including chromium methionine (Cr) (0 and 400 μg/kg diet), zinc oxide (Zn) (0 and 30 mg/kg diet), and vitamin C (VitC) (0 and 250 mg/kg diet) on egg production (EP) and mass (EM) and egg traits in heat-stressed (HS) Lohmann LSL-Lite laying hens from 30 to 45 weeks of age were evaluated. The house temperature was kept at 18°C (weeks 30–40 of age) and then increased to 32°C (weeks 41–45 of age). Dietary treatments had no significant effects on EP, egg weight, EM, and feed conversation ratio before and after exposure to heat stress (P > 0.05). Decreased feed intake intake was observed in group of VitC during exposing to HS (P < 0.05). Dietary supplemental Cr decreased serum glucose concentration before HS (P < 0.05). A combination of Cr and VitC increased serum glucose concentration before and during HS (P < 0.05). Decreased serum concentration of Zn was detected in hens fed the diets with VitC, Cr, or Zn (P < 0.05). Increased serum concentration of Cr was observed in hens fed the diets supplemented with Cr (P < 0.05).
Highlights
Heat stress is a great concern in the poultry industry
There was an interaction (P < 0.05) between vitamin C (VitC), zinc oxide (Zn), and chromium methionine (Cr) on eggshell thickness before exposure to HS (Table 5), so that the eggshell thickness in control group was higher than other experimental groups and the lowest value was for the experimental group containing VitC (P < 0.05)
Egg specific gravity was increased by both VitC and Zn, the magnitude of the increase was lower by their combination
Summary
Heat stress is a great concern in the poultry industry. In laying hens, heat-stressed (HS) depresses body weight (Puthpongsiriporn et al 2001; Mashaly et al 2004; Khan, Naz and Dhama 2014; Chand et al 2016), egg production (EP), egg weight (EW) (Mashaly et al 2004), and eggshell quality (Mashaly et al 2004), and is generally accompanied by suppression of feed intake (FI), which could be the cause of decline in production efficiency. In addition to decreased FI, it has been shown that HS leads to reduced diet digestibility and decreased plasma protein level (Donkoh 1989). Such an ambient temperature disturbs oxidative status in vivo (Ghazi et al 2012a), increases mineral excretion (Gorman and Balnave, 1994), decreases serum vitamin, mineral, and insulin and increases serum glucose, total cholesterol and corticosterone concentrations in poultry (Siegel 1995; Khan et al 2011). Various experiments have conducted to alleviate negative subsequences of high environmental temperature (e.g. reducing dietary protein level, supplementing diet with minerals and vitamins) (Laudadio et al 2012); it has been reported that some minerals and vitamins such as Cr (Ghazi et al 2012b; Torki et al 2014), Zn (Salabi et al 2011; Chand et al 2014), and vitamins C (Roussan et al 2008; Khan et al 2012; Torki et al 2014) and E (Rahman et al, 2017) can be supplemented to reduce the negative effects of HS
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