An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of licorice powder (LP) in diet on performance, egg traits and some serum biochemical parameters of laying hens in the late laying period. Totally 180 Hy-Line W-36 layer hens aged 55-68 weeks with similar weight were selected and assigned to 5 treatments, 3 replicates and 12 hens in each replicate in a completely randomized...

The crop immune response against Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) challenge in eight commercial egg-layer strains (five white-egg layer and three brown-egg layer) and specific-pathogen-free (SPF) White Leghorn (WL) hens was investigated. Pre- and post-SE challenge mucosal immune responses within the crops were evaluated. Commercial layers and SPF WL hens were orally challenged with 10(8) CFU/ml SE P...

We used a total of 504 commercial Single Comb White Leghorn hens (69 and 65 wk of age) in each of two experiments, and hens were induced to molt by feed withdrawal only. Feed withdrawal lasted for 12 and 11 d, and hens lost 26 and 25%, body weight in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. All hens were then weighed, and seven replicate groups of 12 hens each were assigned to molt diet treatments. I...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the viability of the use of spent laying hens’ meat in the manufacturing of mortadella-type sausages with healthy appeal by using vegetable oil instead of animal fat. 120 Hy-line layer hens were distributed in a completely randomized design into two treatments of six replicates with ten birds each. The treatments were birds from light Hy-line W36 and semi-h...

This experiment was conducted to measure the effects of olive leaf powder on performance, egg yield, egg quality and yolk cholesterol level of laying hens. A total of 120 Lohmann Brown laying hens of 22 weeks old were used in this experiment. The birds were fed on standard layer diets containing 0, 1%, 2%, or 3% olive leaf powder for 8 weeks. Egg weight and yield were recorded daily; feed intak...

Several important issues must be taken into consideration when assessing layer-hen welfare. These include food, shelter, freedom from pain and disease, and the degree to which hens can express natural behaviours and cope with sometimes stressful environments (Lay et al., 2011). In layer hens, skeletal health issues are of growing welfare concern due to their violation of two of these principles...

Induced molting is an important economic tool used by the egg industry to recycle an aging layer flock. It is estimated that approximately 70% of the flocks nationwide and almost 100% in California are molted annually. Considering that there are approximately 240 million hens in production in the U.S., a rough estimate of the numbers of hens molted every year would be between 144 and 168 millio...

Molting is a natural process, which birds undergo to rejuvenate their reproductive organs. The US poultry egg production industry has used feed withdrawal to effectively induce molt; however, susceptibility of Salmonella Enteritidis has encouraged the development of alternative methods. Previous research conducted in our laboratory showed that alfalfa is effective at molt induction and provides...

This study evaluated the effects of dietary Ca and P levels on laying hens housed in floor pens (F) or cages (C). Two hundred fifty-six 1-dold pullets, Lohmann Brown (B) and Bovan White (W) intermingled in equal numbers, were placed into 8 F. One hundred twenty-eight 1-d-old caged pullets were allocated into 32 layer C at 14 wk of age. Hens were given isocaloric and isoprotein diets containing ...

The substitution effect of noug (Guzoitia abyssinica) seed cake with samma (Urtica simensis) leaf meal (SLM) was investigated on egg production and egg quality parameters in commercial layer hens. Five treatment (T) diets were formulated to contain SLM at 0% (T1), 3% (T2), 6% (T3), 9% (T4) and 12% (T5) by substituting noug seed cake. One-hundred fifty Isa Brown layer pullets w...