Effect of Fennel (Foeniculum Vulgare Mill.) Used as a Feed Additive on The Egg Quality of Laying Hens Under Heat Stress

Abstract

Keywords Fennel, heat stress, laying hens, antioxidant, feed.Submitted: March/2014 Approved: November/2014 ABSTRACT In this study, one hundred and twenty 40-wk-old White Leghorn laying hens were submitted to two different thermal conditions (24° C vs. 34° C) and were fed three levels (0, 10, or and 20 g/kg of diet) of fennel fruits (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) as a feed additive in. This study was carried out according to a factorial design consisting of two temperatures and three fennel levels with five 5 replicates each (n = 2 × 3 × 5). Performance, egg production, egg quality, and oxidative product levels (malondialdehyde, MDA, and carbonyl) in the eggs were measured before and after heat exposure. The results showed that the tested temperatures did not affect egg production (p>0.05), but the production of eggs with broken shell and feed intake were affected by heat stress (p<0.05). The different temperatures also affected egg quality (p<0.05), reducing egg weight (EW), eggshell thickness (EST), eggshell strength (ESS), Haugh units (HU), albumen height (AH), and albumen weight (AW). At the high environmental temperature, MDA and carbonyl egg contents increased (p<0.05), while fennel consumption reduced the values of both parameters. Heat stress had no effect on yolk cholesterol levels (p>0.05), but increased yolk triglyceride levels. Hens that consumed fennel presented lower yolk cholesterol and triglyceride levels (p<0.05). In general, fennel fruit influenced egg yolk cholesterol and triglyceride contents, and because of its antioxidant properties, it may alleviate the adverse effects of heat stress on laying hens.

Effect of supplementing layer hen diet with phytogenic feed additives on laying performance, egg quality, egg lipid peroxidation and blood biochemical constituents

“…A tendency toward higher body weight gain was recorded in the red pepper group, followed by black cumin and fennel supplemented groups compared with control. Lokaewmanee et al., 2013 , Khan et al., 2013 and Gharaghani et al. (2015) reported that the production performance of laying hens was not changed with dietary inclusion of red pepper, black cumin or fennel, respectively.…”

“…Research on fennel leaves and fruits revealed that its essential oil possesses antioxidant, antimicrobial, and hepatoprotective functions ( Özbek et al., 2003 , Gende et al., 2009 , Shahat et al., 2011 ). Dietary inclusion of fennel in laying hen diets was shown to alleviate the negative effects of heat stress on egg quality parameters ( Gharaghani et al., 2015 ).…”

Effects of Fennel Seed Powder Supplementation on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Meat Quality, and Economic Efficiency of Broilers under Thermoneutral and Chronic Heat Stress Conditions

“…Fennel also has strong antiviral, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory effects, which may improve gut health and eliminate pathogens. It was reported that the FSP is a rich source of essential oil (anethole, fenchone, methyl chavicol, limonene, phellandrene, camphene, pinine, anisic acid, and palmitic, oleic, linoleic, and petroselenic acids, volatile compounds, flavonoids, phenolics [19][20][21].…”

“…The results indicate that FSP had no adverse effects on carcass traits. Moreover, phytogenic plants and their essential oils are used as preservation approaches to enhance the sensory attributes and prolong the shelf life of animal products [19,21,36,39].…”

“…The first group was placed in an independent temperature-controlled room at 23 ± 2 • C. The broiler chicks from the second group were placed in a heat-stressed room and exposed to chronic heat stress conditions (32 ± 2 • C) for seven hours per day from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The indoor relative humidity and temperature under thermoneutral conditions during the experimental period for the broiler was 51.2% and 23.1 • C, 57% and 23.9 • C, and 53% and 24.7 • C during days [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], and 34-41 of age, respectively. Under chronic heat stress conditions, the indoor relative humidity and temperature was 44.9% and 31.5 • C, 47.8% and 31.8 • C, and 41.8% and 31.9 • C during days [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], and 34-41 of age, respectively.…”