Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding diets supplemented with β-glucan products on the performance, small intestinal microflora and immune response in laying hens. The β-glucan products used in the experiment were BetaPolo ® ; soluble β-glucan of microbial cell wall origin, HiGlu ® ; microbial cell wall origin, OGlu ® ; oat origin, BGlu ® ® , T5 ; BGlu ® . Each treatment was replicated 4 times with 36 birds/replicate housed in 2 bird cages, and arranged according to completely randomized block design. Feeding trial lasted 40ds under 16 h lighting regimens. There were significant differences among treatments in hen-house egg production feed intake and feed con- version. HiGlu treatment was significantly higher than OGlu treatments in hen-house egg production. β-glucan supplemented treatments were lower than the control in feed intake and feed conversion ratio. All β-glucan supplemented treatments were significantly higher than the control in eggshell strength. Eggshell color and Haugh unit tended to be lower in the supplemented group than the control. IgY concentration was not significantly affected by treatments. At 5 th week of experiment, however, IgY concentration tended to increase in the supplemented groups. Among the leucocytes parameters, WBC, heterophil, lympho- cytes, monocyte and eosinophil concentration were lower in the supplemented groups than those of the control. Among ery- throcytes, HCT(hematocrit) and MCV(mean corpuscular volume) were significantly affected by treatment. MCV of supple- mented groups were higher than that of the control. Immunoglobulin concentrations in the birds were not significantly different among treatments. However, IgA concentration tended to be low in the supplemented groups than the control. The cfu of small intestinal microflora were not significantly different among treatments, but that of Cl. perfringens tended to be lower than the control. The result of this experiment indicateted that feeding β-glucan to laying hens improve feed conversion ratio and eggshell strength. Also intestinal microflora and immune responses are modified.
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