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Plant extracts and tributyrin response on young laying hen performance

Samper, J., B. Glover, M. Persia, J. Charal and M. Hruby
2022

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of a commercial plant extract preparations based on capsicum, carvacrol, and cinnamaldehyde (C3; Xtract® 6930) and esterified butyric acid – tributyrin (EBA; Daaforce® 100) on layer performance during preand peak production period. Past research has shown nutrient digestibility improvement with C3, and overall poultry performance impacted by C3 and EBA, with limited young layer data. 144 Hy-Line W-36 laying hens were kept in cages in the study conducted between 23 – 43 weeks of age. Birds were assigned to 4 treatments: 1) control, 2) control plus C3 (0.1 g/kg), 3) control plus EBA (0.5 g/kg), and 4) control plus a combination of C3 and EBA, each at 1⁄2 dose of inclusion used for each product in treatments 2 and 3. There were 12 replicate cages per treatment with 3 birds per cage. Birds were offered a mash diet based on corn, soybean meal, poultry by-product meal and DDGS. The feed intake was controlled at 95 g per day. Mortality, egg production and egg mass were recorded daily. All eggs were used for average egg weight measurement. Feed intake and feed efficiency were recorded every two weeks. Eggs were collected for five consecutive days every four weeks for egg analyses. Egg component weights, yolk color, Haugh unit, shell breaking strength and specific gravity were evaluated every 4 weeks on 3 eggs collected per treatment. The study was performed during April through August 2020. Data were analyzed using Statistix 10.0 software (Analytical Software, Tallahassee, FL) with mean separated by LSD test. C3 or EBA at full dose significantly (P<0.05) improved egg production (94.31, 94.14 vs. 91.6%), feed efficiency (585, 594 vs. 568 g egg mass/ kg feed), egg mass (54.68, 55.04 vs. 52.35 g/d) and egg weight (58.01, 58.46 vs. 57.26g) versus control treatment. A combination of C3 and EBA based on a half dose of each product, significantly (P<0.05) improved egg mass and egg production compared to control treatment and numerically improved feed intake, egg weight and feed efficiency. Shell weight was significantly (P<0.05) increased with C3 treatment.

The results of this study suggest the opportunity for C3 and EBA to be used successfully in layers during pre- and peak period to contribute to optimal performance.