Effect of Housing System and Rosemary and Cinnamon Essential Oils on Layers Performance, Egg Quality, Haematological Traits, Blood Chemistry, Immunity, and Antioxidant

Abstract

Housing system and nutrition are non-genetic factors that can improve the well-being of animals to obtain higher quality products. A better understanding of how different housing systems and essential oils can influence the performance of layers is very important at the research and commercial levels. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of a housing system and dietary supplementation of rosemary and cinnamon essential oils on layers’ performance and egg quality. A factorial arrangement (2 × 3) was performed include two housing systems (floor and cage) and three different types of essential oils (0, 300 mg/kg diet of rosemary and 300 mg/kg diet of cinnamon essential oils) to study their effects on the productive performance, egg quality, immunity, oxidative stress and haematology of ISA brown laying hens during the production stages (from 28 to 76 weeks of age). Birds were randomly divided into two groups each comprising of 1500 birds; the first group was moved from the litter to reared laying cages while the second group was floor reared. Each group was randomly divided into three groups, the first was considered as a control group, the second treated with rosemary essential oil, and the third with cinnamon essential oil. The differences in egg production and weight, egg quality, feed intake and conversion, blood picture and chemistry, immunity, and antioxidant parameters between the different housing systems (floor and cage) were not significant at (p < 0.05 or 0.01). On the other hand, the egg production and weight, Haugh unit, feed intake and conversion, blood cholesterol, Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST), urea, Ca, P, immunity, and antioxidant parameters were significantly (p < 0.05 or 0.01) better in rosemary and cinnamon groups than in the control group. Furthermore, the results of dietary supplementation with rosemary and cinnamon were very close. Regarding egg production and weight, there were no significant differences due to the interactions. The differences in egg mass among the interactions were also not significant except at 68–76 weeks, where the cage × cinnamon group was the highest. Under the floor rearing system, birds that were fed a diet supplemented with or without essential oils (EOs) consumed more feed than those raised under the cage system. Regarding feed conversion rate (FCR), the differences among the interactions were not significant except at 44–52, 52–60 and 68–76 weeks, where the cage × cinnamon group was the lowest. Excluding glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity (p < 0.001), all immunity and antioxidant indices were not statistically different as a consequence of the interaction among EOs and housing systems. Additionally, the highest levels of phosphorus were observed for layers fed diets enriched with cinnamon oil with the cage or floor system. In conclusion, the data suggested that supplementation of rosemary and cinnamon essential oils in laying hen diet showed significantly positive effects on hen performance and egg production. Cholesterol, liver and kidney functions, immunity, and antioxidant parameters improved with rosemary and cinnamon supplementation when compared to the control. Additionally, the different housing systems did not result in any positive or negative impact on these traits.

Sustainability and Quality Aspects of Different Table Egg Production Systems: A Literature Review

“…The observed differences in experiments [54,55,[63][64][65][66]68,70,72,73,76,81] with different diets could also be traced back to feeding parameters. The research results of [75,82] also support these findings, as they claim that differences/changes in feeding affect egg quality parameters even more directly than housing. Radu-Rasu et al [83] stated that, under similar dietary conditions, non-cage systems resulted in hens producing eggs with higher nutritive values (lower concentrations of total lipids, cholesterol and gross energy) than in other systems.…”

“…Among other indicators, a decrease in the efficiency of labor use in non-cage systems was highlighted by Stadig et al [114]. Certain studies [56,66,75] demonstrated that housing systems (cage vs. barn/organic) had no effect on egg production. In fact, in a small-scale study [130] egg production per hen per day was found to be higher in the free-range system, but it was similar in conventional cage and enriched cage systems.…”

Consequences of various housing systems and dietary supplementation of thymol, carvacrol, and euganol on performance, egg quality, blood chemistry, and antioxidant parameters

“…Several studies have shown that EOs may improve animal performance and health status by many approaches such as via anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties as well as stimulation of digestive secretions and immune modulation ( Saki et al., 2014 ; Abd El-Hack et al., 2016 ; Abo Ghanima et al., 2020 ). The EOs can be used in poultry feeding for boosting health and performance ( Alagawany et al., 2015 , 2019c ; Changxing et al., 2019 ).…”

Does the dietary graded levels of herbal mixture powder impact growth, carcass traits, blood indices and meat quality of the broilers?

“…Beneficial impacts of herbs in poultry feeding such as improvement feed intake, appetite, energising secretion of digestive enzyme, stimulation immune response and antioxidant, antimicrobial, antihelminthic, antiviral properties and anti-heat stress modulators (Shewita and Taha 2018;Alagawany et al 2019Gado et al 2019;Khafaga et al 2019;Hafez and Attia 2020;Abd El-Hack, Alagawany et al 2020;Abd El-Hack, Abdelnour et al 2020;Ashour, Bin-Jumah et al 2020;Ashour, El-Kholy et al 2020;Batiha et al 2020). Several studies reported useful impacts of phytogenic additives on growth performance, nutrient retention, gut health, intestinal microflora, reduced the susceptibility to diseases, enhanced immunity function and improved carcass traits in broiler chickens (Ashour et al 2014;Abd El-Hack and Alagawany 2015;Taha et al 2019;Abo Ghanima et al 2020;Ashour, Bin-Jumah et al 2020).…”