Comparative analysis of intestinal and reproductive function in older laying hens with three egg laying levels.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

In production, older laying hens exhibit different levels of egg production, though these hens with the same genetic background, age, and feeding conditions. It is speculated that this may be due to varying intestinal function in laying hens with different egg production levels. To verify this speculation, this experiment aims to compare the intestinal function in laying hens with different egg production levels.

Methods

After a 6-week pre-feeding with 1,000 hens, aged 60 weeks, we observed that the overall egg-laying rate for the flock was roughly 85%. Based on the data, a total of 120 healthy Lohmann Pink laying hens, aged 66 weeks, were selected for the experiment, which established three treatment groups, low egg-laying rate (LR, 76.89% ± 1.65%), medium egg-

SUBMITTER: Qiang T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12269605 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature