Yeast culture promotes the production of aged laying hens by improving intestinal digestive enzyme activities and the intestinal health status.

ABSTRACT: Yeast culture (YC) positively affects the performance of laying hens. The purpose of the present study was to explore the underlying mechanism for the YC-mediated performance improvement. Sixty 67-week-old Hy-Line Brown laying hens were randomly allocated into 2 experimental groups with 5 replicates of 6 birds each. One group was fed a control diet, whereas the other received the control diet supplemented with YC at 3.0 g/kg; treatment lasted for 8 wk. The results showed that dietary YC supplementation increased (P < 0.05) the total egg weight (11.2-13.6%) and egg-laying rate (13.0-13.5%) but decreased (P < 0.05) the feed/egg ratio by 9.3 to 11.0% during weeks 5 to 6 and 7 to 8 compared with the control. However, egg quality, including eggshell strength, eggshell thickness, egg weight, alb

SUBMITTER: Zhang JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7587756 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature