Free-choice Feeding of Three Different Dietary Calcium Sources and their Influence on Egg Quality Parameters of Commercial Layers

Abstract

Purpose:The study reported herein was conducted to determine the effects of choice feeding three different calcium (Ca) sources on external and internal egg quality parameters of commercial layers.Research Method: Three dietary Ca sources (oyster shells, limestone and bone meal) were choice fed ad libitumly along with a commercial layer feed. The birds fed only the commercial layer diet was used as the control. The experiment was conducted as a complete randomized design. A total of 128, 55 weeks old Hy-line white layer hens (1500 ±21g) were assigned into 16 cages of 8 birds each. Four replicate cages were randomly assigned to each of the four dietary treatments. Bird's performances were tested weekly. Twenty eggs from each treatment were collected weekly over five weeks period and were assessed for shell and internal quality parameters.Findings: Daily Ca intakes of birds affected significantly (P<0.05) by the Ca source. The birds fed oyster shells and limestone showed the highest (P<0.05) daily Ca intakes. Feeding bone meal significantly (P<0.05) reduced damaged shell percentage. Weekly body weight gain, weekly egg production and feed conversion ratio among treatments were similar (P>0.05). Dietary supplementation of Ca significantly (P<0.05) improved the egg weight. Shape index and shell ratios among treatments were similar (P>0.05). Feeding bone meal significantly (P<0.05) improved unit surface shell weight (USSW) and the shell thickness. Calcium supplementation had no effect (P>0.05) on albumen and yolk quality parameters of eggs.Originality/value: The present study concluded that feeding bone meal to commercial layers improves USSW, shell thickness thereby reducing egg damages. Calcium source has no influence in improving internal quality parameters of chicken eggs.

Influence of different bone meal particle size induced calcium specific appetite on performance and egg quality parameters of layer chickens

“…However, Ca and P contents of bones are known to be affected by the species, age, nutrition and sampling site (Orban & Roland,1992;McDonald et al, 2002;Phiraphinyo et al, 2006;Khalil et al, 2017). However, the Ca and P contents of BM produced from thigh bones in the present study are lower than those reported by Rathnayaka et al (2020) for BM (Ca 101.6 g/kg and P 59.8 g/kg) of thigh bone origin.…”

“…However, feeding BM with different particle sizes had no effect (p > 0.05) on the damaged egg percentage. The finding of this study is comparable to that reported by Rathnayaka et al (2020) who found that free-choice feeding of BM reduced the damaged egg percentage (1.01%) in layers as compared to those fed with a control diet alone, limestone, and oyster shells. This effect of BM supplementation to reduce damaged egg percentage may be due to (i) the birds' ability to meet their daily Ca requirement through BM intakes and (ii) the availability of BM Ca to the birds for shell formation.…”

“…Bone meal contains considerable levels of Ca ranging from 354 to 362 g/kg, depending on the species used (Orban & Roland, 1992). Studies that investigated the potential of BM as a Ca supplement to feed free choice in commercial layers are highly limited and the study by Rathnayaka et al (2020) concluded that use of BM when choice fed, improves the shell thickness in layers, compared to those who were fed oyster shells and lime stone.…”

Effects of Bacillus subtilis on Production Performance, Bone Physiological Property, and Hematology Indexes in Laying Hens

“…Thus, in order to prepare pullets to start and continue laying eggs smoothly, the composition of the feed is changed, including increasing the Ca amount from 2.2% to approximately 3.5-3.8% [7]. In addition, producers also use large particles of bone meal, limestone, or oyster shells as Ca sources [8] with phytase [9] for improvement of Ca bioavailability in laying hens by prolonging retention time in small intestines and effective quantity of Ca [10]. However, when hens become aged (40-week-old and beyond), reaching peak egg production, along with the need for a great amount of Ca for eggshell formation, which causes more Ca to be mobilized from the skeleton to the eggshell gland to remedy limited and inadequate Ca absorbed in the gut [7].…”

Genetic variations for egg internal quality of ducks revealed by genome‐wide association study

“…The egg internal quality can be reflected by measurement of yolk color (YC), albumin height (AH), yolk weight (YW), and Haugh unit (HU) (Kul & Seker 2004). Many factors, including the nutritional level of laying hens, storage time, and conditions of eggs, can affect the egg internal quality traits directly (Scott & Silversides 2000;Huang & Lin 2011;Samiullah et al 2016;Quan & Benjakul 2018;Lokapirnasari et al 2019;Pires et al 2020;Rathnayaka et al 2020;Saleh et al 2020). In addition, genetics is also one of the key factors (Hocking et al 2003;Zhang et al 2005;Liu et al 2018).…”