Effects of dietary taurine on egg weight.

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether taurine supplementation to laying hens would influence laying performance. In Experiment 1, a total of 120 White Leghorn hens were fed diets supplemented with 0, 0.25, or 0.5% taurine for 5 wk. Egg weight was reduced significantly by supplementing 0.25 and 0.5% taurine; however, taurine did not affect other laying performance variables. In Experiment 2, a total of 240 White Leghorn hens were fed diets supplemented with 0 or 0.5% taurine and 0 or 0.1% methionine for 7 wk. Egg weight was decreased due to supplementing taurine in the diets; however, dietary methionine did not affect egg weight, and there was no interaction between dietary taurine and methionine. These results suggest that dietary taurine has the potential to decrease egg weight without affecting egg production, feed conversion, or body weight.