Straková E., P. Suchý, M. Šugerková, M. Macháček: Positive Effect of Plant-Based Diet on the Performance and Health of Laying Hens. acta vet. Brno 2007, 76: S31-S37. an entirely plant-based feed mixture was prepared to minimize the potential risk of transmitting prion infections through animal feed. It consisted of two protein components (soya extracted meal and lupin seed meal) and was compare...

The shrimp industry in Central America has grown significantly. Much waste is generated by this industry because of the high percentage of shrimp heads, exoskeletons, and soluble components lost during processing. The objective of this study was to measure the effect of substituting different levels of shrimp meal (SM) for soybean meal (SBM) in layer diets. A control corn-soybean layer diet and...

Ammonia (NH3) emissions from laying hens are affected by nutrient content of the diet, manure quantity, and manure properties such as moisture content, nitrogen content, and pH. These production traits may vary with strain of the hen. However, limited information is available concerning the effects of laying-hen genetics on manure properties and NH3 emission. This study was conducted to compara...

Abstract Background Changshun green-shell laying hens are unique to Guizhou Province, China, and have high egg quality. Improving production performance has become an important breeding task, in recent years, the development of high-throughput sequencing technology provides a fast exact method for genetic selection. Therefore, we aimed use this analyze differences between ovarian mRNA transcrip...

Free-living hens roost on branches in trees at night, and laying hens in aviary systems or cages provided with perches also make extensive use of these for night-time roosting. It is therefore suggested that roosting on perches is important to the hens and that domestic hens should be provided with perches in order to promote welfare. However, no study has addressed the question of motivation f...

Laying hens are strongly motivated to use nests for egg laying, and alternative production systems (e.g., aviaries) provide artificial sites to meet this need and ensure efficient collection of clean, undamaged eggs. However, nests are typically not provided to allow simultaneous use by all hens; therefore, competition or mislaid eggs can result. To understand the influence of strain on laying ...

Modern methods of industrial poultry and egg production systems involve stressful practices that stimulate Escherichia coli (E. coli) activity causing endotoxic shock. This investigation was conducted to evaluate the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and cell death program genes and DNA damage induced by E. coli in the brain and liver tissues of laying hens. A total of two hundred and te...

BACKGROUND The increasing trend of ban on the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) across the globe in the poultry industry has led to a growing need for alternatives to AGPs. Prebiotic, probiotic and their combination as a synbiotic have been considered as potential alternatives. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a prebiotic (isomaltooligosaccharide, IMO), a probiotic (PrimaL...

The study aimed to evaluate the potential effects of feeding with phytase transgenic corn (PTC) on organ weight, serum biochemical parameters and nutrient digestibility, and to determine the fate of the transgenic DNA in laying hens. A total of 144 50-week-old laying hens were grouped randomly into 2 treatments, with 8 replicates per treatment and 9 hens per replicate. Each treatment group of h...

Step-Up Protein (SUP) rearing regimens can reduce Feed Consumption (FC) and Body Weight (BW), while still resulting in pullets with equal or superior egg production and egg mass to pullets grown on a Step-Down Protein (SDP) program. Egg weight has been reduced due to SUP programs, presumably due to the reduced BW at sexual maturity. Because BW is reduced by SUP regimens and a slight lowering of...