Role of long-term supplementation of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 on egg production and egg quality of laying hen

Abstract

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary 25-hydroxyvitamin D 3 ( 25OHD ) on pullet and egg-laying hen growth performance, egg production, and egg quality. Three hundred and ninety 1-day-old Hy-Line W36 pullets were randomly allocated to 3 treatments with 10 replicated cages and 13 birds per cage. Dietary treatments were vitamin D 3 at 2,760 IU/kg ( D ); vitamin D 3 at 5,520 IU/kg ( DD ), and vitamin D 3 at 2,760 IU/kg plus 25OHD at 2,760 IU (69 μg)/kg ( 25D ). Body weight and feed intake were recorded at the end of each stage: starter 1 (0–3 wk), starter 2 (4–6 wk), grower (7–12 wk), developer (13–15 wk), prelay (15–17 wk), peaking (18–38 wk), layer 2 (39–48 wk), layer 3 (49–60 wk), layer 4 (61–75 wk), and layer 5 (76–95 wk). Egg production was recorded daily. Egg quality was evaluated every 8 wk starting from 25 wk. There was no difference in growth performance during the rearing period (0–17 wk). In the laying period (18–95 wk), DD showed lower feed intake at layer 2, but higher intake at layer 3 along with lower hen day production ( HDP ) from 22 to 48 wk compared to the other treatments. During the same period, the DD group laid smaller eggs with higher specific gravity and shell thickness compared with the other treatments or D alone at 40 wk, which may be partly due to the lower body weight. In contrast, 25D had better feed conversion ratio (feed intake per dozen of eggs) at layer 2, and higher overall (22–60 wk) HDP compared with DD. For the egg quality analysis, at 25 and 33 wk, both DD and 25D had higher Haugh unit compared with D. However, 25OHD has no effects on eggshell quality during the entire production period and no beneficial effects on egg production during the later laying period (after 60 wk). In summary, long-term and early supplementation of 25OHD has positive effects on egg production and egg quality, and the beneficial effects were mainly observed during the early laying stage.

Effects of the housing environment and laying hen strain on tibia and femur bone properties of different laying phases of Hy-Line hens

“…Microtomography can produce 3D images of an internal structure of bone through reconstruction ( Landis and Keane, 2010 ). Microtomography can also provide an architectural structure of the cortical, trabecular, and medullary bone, which was not previously possible with the use of other techniques such as dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and quantitative computed tomography ( Jendral et al., 2008 ; Saunders-Blades et al., 2009 ; Landis and Keane, 2010 ; Chen et al., 2017 ; White et al., 2019 ). Similarly, microCT quantifies the bone material and structural properties (bone volume [ BV ], BMD, bone mineral content [BMC], and number and volume of pores in the bones).…”

Bioconversion of vitamin D3 to bioactive calcifediol and calcitriol as high-value compounds

“…It has been reported that supplementation with calcitriol is helpful for the treatment of liver [5] and kidney disorders [6], and calcifediol is used for the treatment of calcium disorders, such as rickets [7]. In addition, calcifediol or calcitriol supplementation is able to prevent cartilage diseases, improve egg production and egg quality of laying hen, and enhance reproductive performance of breeding swine in the livestock and poultry production [8][9][10]. At present, calcifediol and calcitriol are mainly produced by chemical synthesis, which requires complex protection and deprotection steps for the regioselective introduction of hydroxyl groups, especially for hydroxylation on C-1, limiting the industrial production [11,12].…”

Effect of the combination of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and higher level of calcium and phosphorus in the diets on bone 3D structural development in pullets

“…Hens lay eggs continuously without molting, suggesting no opportunity for the possibility of cortical bone regeneration once laying starts ( Whitehead, 2004 ). Hence, rearing is a vital period for establishing optimal bone mineralization and structural development with implications on eggshell quality and bone health during laying ( Regmi et al, 2015 ; Chen et al, 2020a ; Chen et al, 2020b ).…”

“…Numerous pullet studies have addressed the importance of early bone development, and its prolonged effects on bone health during laying periods ( Casey-Trott et al, 2017 ; Chen et al, 2020a ; Chen et al, 2020b ; Hester et al, 2013 ; Kim et al, 2012 ; Regmi et al, 2015 ). However, prior nutritional studies seldom focused on the pullet period because osteoporosis was observed during the laying period; it was not successful to reverse it by using nutritional approaches targeting the laying period ( Rennie et al, 1997 ; Kim et al, 2012 ; Chen et al, 2020a ).…”

“…25-Hydroxyvitamin D 3 (H25D) is an intermediate form of vitamin D 3 and is now readily available for commercial use in the poultry industry since 2006 ( Adhikari et al, 2020 ). H25D has been numerously studied in broiler research for enhancing bone health and Ca and P absorption ( Kim et al, 2011 ; Wideman et al, 2015 ; Han et al, 2016 ; Świątkiewicz et al, 2017 ; Chen et al, 2020a ; Chen et al, 2020b ). However, only few studies on laying hens and especially pullets for developing the healthy bone structures for performance and maintenance during the laying period ( Käppeli et al, 2011 ; Nascimento et al, 2014 ; Silva, 2017 ; Adhikari et al, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2020a ; Chen et al, 2020b ).…”