There has been growing social and scientific interest in recent years in laying hen welfare. Stress is an animal welfare parameter that has been found to alter laying hens’ physiology and social behaviour. Our study aims to test the effects of the different housing systems (laying cage, barn and free range) on the laying hens’ welfare. In this study we have taken a new approach to determine str...

The present study was carried out to determine the effects of fenugreek powder (FP) and extract (FE) on performance, egg quality, blood parameters and immune responses of laying hens. One-hundred and fifty Leghorn laying hens were used in a completely randomized design with five treatments and five replicates for eight weeks. Treatments were various levels of FP and FE including zero (control; ...

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of licorice powder (LP) in diet on performance, egg traits and some serum biochemical parameters of laying hens in the late laying period. Totally 180 Hy-Line W-36 layer hens aged 55-68 weeks with similar weight were selected and assigned to 5 treatments, 3 replicates and 12 hens in each replicate in a completely randomized...

In order to study the effect of turmeric rhizome powder (TU) and enzyme in some blood parameters of laying hens, an in vivo study was conducted. In a 5 * 2 completely randomized block design with factorial arrangement, 5 levels of TU (0.0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, and 0.20 %) and 2 levels of enzyme (0.0, and 0.05%) with 4 blocks (replicate) , 480, 100-week old laying hens for 4 weeks fed wheat-soybean...

Laying hens are strongly motivated to use nests for egg laying, and alternative production systems (e.g., aviaries) provide artificial sites to meet this need and ensure efficient collection of clean, undamaged eggs. However, nests are typically not provided to allow simultaneous use by all hens; therefore, competition or mislaid eggs can result. To understand the influence of strain on laying ...

The trials were conducted to assess the effects of long-term feeding with phytase transgenic corn (PTC) to hens on laying performance and egg quality, and investigate the fate of transgenic DNA and protein in digesta, blood, tissues, and eggs. Fifty-week old laying hens (n = 144) were fed with a diet containing 62.4% PTC or non-transgenic isogenic control corn (CC) for 16 weeks. We observed tha...

The effects of housing systems on the calcium requirement for eggshell production, eggshell quality and on the breaking strength of the hen’s tibia were evaluated. Unenriched cages (UN) (24 laying hens), enriched cages (EN) (16 laying hens) and floor system (FS) (24 laying hens) were used in this experiment. The eggshell production of laying hens from 19 to 66 weeks of age was higher (P < 0.01)...

Acult mallard ducks fed 0, 1, 10, or 100 ppm vanadyl sulfate in the diet were sacrificed after 12 wk on treatment; tissues were analyzed for vanadium. No birds died during the study and body weights did not change. Vanadium accumulated to higher concentrations in the bone and liver than in other tissues. Concentrations in bones of hens were five times those in bones of drakes, suggesting an int...

Egg drop syndrome virus (EDSV) can markedly decrease egg production in laying hens. Duck is the natural host of EDSV. EDSV derived from ducks abrogate egg drop in laying hens. We have previously confirmed that duck-derived EDSVs have a variety of replication activities in chick embryo liver (CEL) cells. However, it is currently unclear whether duck-derived EDSV could display tropism and adaptat...

Numerous studies have demonstrated influences of hybrid, feed, and housing on prevalence of keel bone fractures, but influences of behavior and production on an individual level are less known. In this longitudinal study, 80 white and brown laying hens were regularly checked for keel bone deviations and fractures while egg production was individually monitored using Radio Frequency Identificati...