Performance, Biochemical Profile and Antioxidant Activity of Hens Supplemented with Addition of Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) Seed Cakes in Diet

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of milk thistle seed cakes addition in laying hens diet to performance, blood biochemical parameters and antioxidant activity. A total of 30 Bovans Brown hens were included to the experiment. The trial was performed from the age of 69 weeks to 80 weeks of hens age. The experimental group received feed mixture containing 7% milk thistle seed cakes. Control group received feed mixture without milk thistle seed cakes. After the 69th week of age, the laying hens in the experimental group reached a higher number of eggs and produced more egg mass compared to the control group. In the evaluation of the egg quality parameters, higher Haugh units, a higher millimeter height of the egg and thinner eggshell in the group receiving 7% of the seed cakes were found. When evaluating health indicators, higher antioxidant activity was found in the experimental group. Blood biochemical parameters was without any differences.

The Milk Thistle Seed Cakes and Hempseed Cakes are Potential Feed for Poultry

“…In our experiment [ 35 ], no differences in blood biochemical parameters were found with the inclusion of 7% milk thistle (i.e., no effect of milk thistle seed cakes on the monitored parameters of liver function or other selected parameters of laying hen metabolism was found). The same conclusion was reached by Blevins et al [ 65 ], who added 1000 mg/kg of silymarin to the feed mixture of laying hens, but found no differences in the activity of the enzymes GGT and AST, but also in the activity of cytochrome (CYP) 450 34A.…”

“…Chemical composition of hempseed and milk thistle seed cakes used by us [ 34 , 35 ] are shown in Table 1 . Generally, the seed cakes (i.e., expellers or pomace) are protein feed with residual 10% ether extract and relatively high amount of crude fiber.…”

“…The experiment by Št’astník et al [ 35 ] was performed on laying hens after 69 weeks of age to investigate the possible effect of milk thistle on their livers and performance—including egg quality parameters. Perspective results are found in the addition of 7% milk thistle seed cakes in the diet of laying hens.…”

“…In the evaluation of the egg quality parameters, higher Haugh units were found, a higher millimeter height of the egg, but a thinner shell in the laying hens receiving 7% of the seed cakes. When evaluating health indicators, higher antioxidant activity was found in the experimental group [ 35 ], which could be due to silymarin content. It has a polyphenolic structure which is the reason for its antioxidant properties.…”

“…The use of milk thistle seed cakes (as a source of silymarin complex) for the experiment in laying hens was chosen for potential prevention liver damage and also due to the fact a higher content of crude fiber may be included in the feed mixture of laying hens [ 61 ]. In the experiment [ 35 ], 7% of milk thistle seed cakes were added to the mixture, which meant a content of 5.3% of crude fiber in the layers’ diet.…”