China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2020, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (5): 1413-1420.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2020.05.014

• Animal Nutrition and Feed Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Enterococcus faecalis on Production Performance,Egg Quality and Intestinal Morphology of Laying Hens During the Late Laying Period

TAO Zhenyang1, ZHANG Yaowen1, CAO Zhongyang2, JIAO Guobao2, ZHANG Zhidan1, LIU Fangyuan1, WANG Jie1, WANG Zhanbin1   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471003, China;
    2. Henan Yangshao Biochemical Engineering Co., Ltd., Sanmenxia 472400, China
  • Online:2020-05-20 Published:2020-05-18

Abstract: The purpose of this experiment was to study the effects of Enterococcus faecalis on production performance,egg quality and intestinal morphology of laying hens during the late laying period.A total of 270 Hy-Line Brown laying hens aged of 70 weeks were randomly divided into 3 groups with 6 replicates per group and 15 hens per replicates.The test was set three groups:Control group (feeding the basic diet),group Ⅰ (basic diet+3.75 mg/kg Enterococcus faecalis),group Ⅱ (basal diet+7.5 mg/kg Enterococcus faecalis).The preliminary test lasted for 7 days and the experiment lasted for 50 days.The results showed that compared with control group,the egg laying rate and egg mass of groups Ⅰ and Ⅱ were extremely significantly increased (P<0.01),and feed-to-egg was extremely significantly reduced (P<0.01).Compared with control group,there was no significant change in eggshell thickness,eggshell strength,egg shape index,protein height,Haugh unit,relative weight of egg yolk,and relative eggshell weight of groups Ⅰ and Ⅱ (P>0.05).Compared with control group,the mucosal thickness of the duodenum and ileum at the late laying period of groups Ⅰ and Ⅱ were extremely significantly increased (P<0.01),and the ileal villus height was significantly increased (P<0.05).In conclusion,the addition of a suitable dose of Enterococcus faecalis in diets could improve production performance and intestinal morphology of laying hens during the late laying period.

Key words: Enterococcus faecalis; laying hens; production performance; egg quality; intestinal morphology

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