China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2021, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (9): 3303-3311.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2021.09.021

• Animal Nutrition and Feed Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of Pine Needle Powder on Production Performance,Egg Quality, Serum Biochemical and Antioxidant Indices of Laying Hens

WANG Qianguang1, ZHANG Xu2,4, ZHU Jingbo3, WANG Lan1, ZHOU Dan1, LI Haobang2, JIANG Guitao2,4   

  1. 1. Changde Vocational Technical College, Changde 415000, China;
    2. Hunan Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Changsha 410131, China;
    3. Changsha County Sheng Da Laying Hens Professional Cooperatives, Changsha 410000, China;
    4. Hunan Engineering Research Center of Poultry Production Safety, Changsha 410128, China
  • Received:2021-04-21 Online:2021-09-20 Published:2021-09-17

Abstract: This study was aimed to investigate the effect of pine needle powder on production performance, egg quality, serum biochemical and antioxidant indices of laying hens, in order to provide a reference for applying pine needle powder in laying hens production. A total of 120 healthy 40-week-old No. 1 Jingfen laying hens were selected as experimental animals, which were randomly divided into 2 groups. There were 6 replicates per group and each replicate contained 10 individuals. The hens in control group were fed a basal diet, and those in experimental group were fed the diet adding 3% pine needle powder in the basal diet to replace wheat bran. The pre-experimental period lasted for 7 days for adaption and the experimental period lasted for 56 days. In the course of experiment, the feed intake, total egg production and total egg weight were recorded per repeat each day. And then, the average daily feed intake, average egg weight, daily egg production and feed egg ratio were computed in groups. Furthermore, two eggs were taken from each replicate to gauge eggshell strength, eggshell thickness, egg yolk color and Haugh unit at the 28th and 56th days of the experiment. The last two days of the experiment, 10 eggs were selected from each replicate and stored in refrigerator at 4 ℃. Then, two eggs were selected from each replicate to measure Haugh units of eggs at the 15th, 20th, 60th and 105th days of storage. At the 56th day of the experiment, one laying hen was selected from each replicate after fasting for 12 h to extract 5 mL of blood from the inferior wing vein. The contents of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), uric acid (UA), urea and glucose (GLU), and the activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were tested by automatic biochemical analyzer. The content of malondialdehyde (MDA), the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), glutathione (GSH) and catalase (CAT), and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in serum were tested by reagent kit method. The results showed that:①Compared with control group, dietary pine needle powder significantly increased the laying rate of laying hens (P<0.05), and significantly decreased the average egg weigh and F/E (P<0.05), but there was no significant differences in average daily feed intake, average daily egg production and qualified egg rate (P>0.05). ②At the 28th day of the experiment, dietary pine needle powder significantly increased the egg yolk color of laying hens (P<0.05), there was no significant differences in egg yolk color between two groups at the 56th day of the experiment (P>0.05). There was no effects on the Haugh unit, eggshell thickness and eggshell strength of eggs (P>0.05). ③ Compared with control group, dietary pine needle powder had no effects on the contents of serum TC, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C, TP, ALB, GLB, urea, UA, GLU and the activities of serum ALT, AST and ALP (P>0.05). Dietary pine needle powder significantly increased the content of serum MDA and the activity of GSH-Px of laying hens (P<0.05), but there were no effects on the contents of GSH and the activities of SOD and CAT, and T-AOC (P>0.05). In conclusion, dietary supplementation of 3% pine needle powder could significantly increase the egg production rate of laying hens, improve F/E and egg yolk color, and significantly increase the content of serum MDA and the activity of GSH-Px of laying hens, but there was no effect on T-AOC of laying hens. The results indicated that it’s feasible to replace the equal proportion of wheat bran with 3% pine needle powder in the diet of laying hens.

Key words: pine needle powder; laying hens; production performance; egg quality; serum biochemical index; antioxidant index

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