G. A. A. Hamady¹ and K. Y. Farroh²

¹Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt.

²Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Central Lab, Agricultural Research Centre, Giza, Egypt.

 

Abstract :

The present study evaluated the effects different forms of chitosan (ordinary chitosan ^“OCh” and chitosan nanoparticles ^“ChNP^”) as a dietary supplementation on egg production, egg quality, yolk egg composition, blood serum traits, and intestinal bacteria. A total of 96 hens of Bábolna TETRA-SL at 23 weeks of age were randomly assigned into 4 experimental groups with three replicates each. The control (Co) group, T1 group, and T2 group were fed 0.0 mg/kg diet, 150 mg/kg diet and 300 mg/kg diet, respectively. The control group (Co) were fed the basal diet without the supplement, while birds in the treatment groups T₁, T_2, and T₃ were fed the basal diet supplemented with 200 mg OCh/kg diet, 50 mg ChNP/kg diet, and 200 mg ChNP /kg diet, respectively. The experimental period was 12 weeks (23-34 weeks old). The egg laying rate, average egg weight, and feed conversion ratio of hens were not affected significantly by the experimental groups. Egg mass and feed intake were significantly decreased (P<0.05) for all treatments compared to the control group. Albumen height and Haugh unit were significantly increased in the T1 and T3 groups compared to the control group (P<0.05). Unsaturated fatty acids (ΣUSFA) were significantly increased in the T1 and T3 compared to the other groups (P<0.05). However, saturated fatty acids (ΣSFA) were significantly decreased in the T1 and T3 groups compared to the other groups (P<0.05). Malondialdehyde concentration was significantly decreased in the T1 and T3 groups (P<0.05) compared to the Co group. Immunoglobulin Y was significantly increased (P<0.05) in the T1 group followed by decreasing order in the T3 group. Total bacterial count, including Lactobacillus count in the intestine was significantly increased (P < 0.05) in the T1 and T3 groups compared to the other groups. These results concluded that both of OCh and ChNP have a positive effect on the productive performance of laying hens.

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