To better understand the molecular mechanism(s) underlying egg-laying in Sichuan white geese, the profiles of genes in the pituitary gland were investigated during the prelaying and laying periods. Total RNA was extracted from the pituitary glands of geese during prelaying or laying periods and cDNA was generated. After sequencing and annotation, 54 upregulated and 84 downregulated genes were o...

Two experiments were conducted to study the effects of red pepper (Capsicum frutescens) powder or red pepper pigment on the performance and egg yolk color of laying hens. In Exp. 1, 210, thirty-wk old, Hy-line Brown laying hens were fed one of seven diets containing 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, 2.0, 4.8 or 9.6 ppm red pepper pigment or 0.3 ppm carophyll red. Each diet was fed to three replicate batteries of ...

The objective of this study was to investigate the deposition rule of yolk cholesterol in Lushi Green-shelled and Silky Fowl layers. A total of 90 layers of each breed were selected at an age of 15 to 51 weeks. Productive performance was recorded on a weekly basis, whereas yolk cholesterol was determined at 4-week intervals from 21 to 51 weeks of age. The average yolk cholesterol content of Sil...

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the effects of toasted soybean grains on bioeconomic performance of pullets and layer hens in hot and humid environment. A total of 972 three-week-old Harco chicks were divided into 12 groups. At starter, pullet and laying phases, birds were fed four diets containing 0% (R0), 5% (R5), 10% (R10), and 15% (R15) of soybean grains. Results showed similar feed i...

Several studies of marine top predators, above all of seabirds, have analyzed the effects of either individual age or environmental fluctuations on reproduction; nevertheless, little is known about the age patterns in breeding performance in a variable environment. To investigate the simultaneous influence of age and environmental conditions on laying dates and egg volumes, we tested different ...

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of substitution of soybean meal (SBM) with canola meal (CM) in diets formulated on the basis of total or digestible amino acid (AA) on productive performance, egg quality, and selected organ weight and blood parameters in laying hens from 73 to 83 weeks of age. A total of 128 laying hens were allotted randomly to a completely randomized design arr...

An experiment was conducted with 72 Bovans Brown laying hens to determine the effect of dietary crude glycerin on laying performance; egg quality; retention of N, Ca, and P; and metabolizability of energy. The dietary treatments consisted of a control corn-soybean diet containing 6% corn starch (17% CP, 2,775 kcal/kg of AME(n), 0.81% lysine, 0.36% methionine, 3.60% Ca, and 0.37% available P) an...

An experiment was conducted to elucidate the effects of turmeric powder supplementation on egg production performance of old laying hens (80 weeks of age). There were 40 hens of Hysex Brown strain used in the study. They were caged individually, and randomly divided into 4 treatment groups of diet containing 0 (control), 1, 2 and 4 % oven dried turmeric powder for 3 periods of 4 weeks; Egg prod...

Geese are an economically important poultry species worldwide. Their superior meat production performance and meat qual-ity make them a popular food. However, they are not bred worldwide because their poor laying capacity increases farming costs. To gain a global view of the genes that are differentially expressed between pre-laying (P) and laying (L) periods and to develop a database for furth...

The deposition of dietary folic acid (FA) into the chicken egg is likely regulated by its conversion to 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF), the predominant form of this vitamin in eggs (>80%). Supplementation of 5-MTHF in the laying hens′ diet may therefore enhance total egg folate concentrations. To this end, a study was conducted using equimolar concentration of either FA or 5-MTHF in diets fe...