Assessing bone mineral density, eggshell characteristics and their relationship at peak egg production of laying hens in response to various levels of vitamin C

Abstract

In this study, the effects of the inclusion of different vitamin C levels in the diet on bone mineral density (BMD) and eggshell quality was determined. Four experimental diets with four levels of vitamin C (0, 250, 500 and 750 mg/kg) were used. During the experiment, environmental temperature and humidity were 19±1°C and 55±5% respectively. Correlation coefficients of BMD index and shell characteristics with production parameters were also determined. Egg weight, egg mass, hen-day egg production and eggshell quality were not significantly influenced by vitamin C levels. BMD was not affected by vitamin C utilization. A positive correlation was observed between BMD and egg weight and hen-day egg production. A significant positive correlation between specific gravity and eggshell traits was also found. In conclusion, the results of this study have shown that vitamin C does not affect bone mineral density and eggshell quality under lower critical temperature

Effect of green propolis on the productivity, nutrient utilisation, and intestinal morphology of Japanese laying quail

“…Recent studies have shown that propolis has estrogenic and anti-osteoclastic activities (Darmadi and Mustamsir, 2016;Zingue et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2018) and stimulates bone formation (Al-Molla et al, 2014;Okamoto et al, 2015;Pereira et al, 2018). It is possible that the absorbed calcium is directed to the bones of the bird (Bansal et al, 2013) instead of the eggshells, because there are negative correlations between weight and percentage of ash in the tibia and eggshell thickness (Kim et al, 2005) and between bone medullary density and eggshell percentage (Saki et al, 2011) in laying birds.…”