Influence of butyric, lauric and propionic acids mixture on egg quality of laying hens

Abstract

Different feed additives such as probiotics, prebiotics, symbiotic and organic acids had been introduced as alternative feeding strategies to enhance productive performance of laying hens. Organic acids are promising alternatives (Hyden, 2000). Health of the gut is one of the major factors governing the performance of birds and thus, the economics of poultry production (Samik et al.,'2007) and the profile of intestinal microflora plays an important role in gut health (Dhawale, 2005). Organic acids including lactic, citric, formic and fumaric acids or there different salts are known to control harmful microorganisms in digestive and respiratory organs of poultry (Park et al., 2009). The most important role of organic acids is to reduce pH in the stomach and gut (Yesilbag and Colpan, 2006) and improve some immune responses of birds (Abdel-Fattah et al., 2008). Previous studies reported that organic acids such as fumaric, propionic and butyric acids and their salts have shown variable effects on egg production and egg quality parameters. These discrepancies would be related to the source, the amount of organic acids used, location, environmental condition and the composition of the diets (Jensen and Chang, 1976; Gama et al., 2000). So the aim of the study was to investigate the effect of different content of butyric, lauric and propionic acids mixture on the laying hens' egg productivity, quality and malondialdehydes (MDA) concentrations. Material and Methods Feeding trial was conducted on 36 laying hens of Hisex Brown strain at the age of 30 weeks. The birds were divided into 3 groups, 12 laying hens in each group. The birds were fed a compound feed diets (Control group), Experimental I group was supplemented by I kg/t of feed butyric, lauric and propionic mixture and Experimental II group was supplemented by 1.5 kg/t of feed butyric, lauric and propionic mixture. During the feeding trial, the laying hens were held in the individual cages with stationary drink meal diet 125 g per day. Egg weight, albumen high, Haugh unit, intensity of egg yolk color were established by multifunctional automatic egg characteristics analyzer „Egg Multi-Tester EMT-5200", hardness of eggshell - by „Egg Shell Force Gauge MODEL-IT' device, and thickness of eggshell - by electronic micrometer „MITUTOYO". The malondialdehyde content in the egg yolk was determined by high performance liquid chromatography method described by R. Mendes (Mendes et al., 2009). For this purpose, a high pressure gradient HPLC system Varian ProStar (Varian Corp., USA) was used. Statistical analysis. The results of the experiment were analysed using the 1-way ANOVA test, and significant differences between groups were determined by Duncan's multiple range test. Statistica 8.0. for Windows software was used. Differences were considered significant at P<0.05. Results and discussion Productivity parameters and feed consumption for production of 1 kg egg mass (kg) of laying hens of 30-38 weeks of age are presented in Table I. Butyric, lauric and propionic acid mixture had no effecton egg-laying. In the experimental group II (the diet of laying hens was supplemented by 1.5 kg/t of feed) the organic acids mixture increased egg laying intensity by 1.46 percent compared with the control group. Butyric, lauric and propionic acids mixture average egg weight in the experimental group I and II decreased by 5% and 3% respectively compared with the control group (P > 0.05). Feed consumption per 1 kg of egg mass produced in experimental groups decreased by 2-4% compared with the control group but data was not statistically...