LED in production systems of laying hens: An alternative to increase sustainability

The Brazilian poultry production currently has a substantial impact on the national and international economy. Brazil ranks sixth in the world rankings of the largest egg producers. However, the activity still has barriers related to management and facilities, such as high waste of electrical energy due to the low energy efficiency of the lighting systems. The artificial lighting programs represent an important management tool to accelerate or delay sexual maturity of laying, stimulate the release of reproductive hormones, increase the egg production, besides promoting improvements in the shell quality and the size of the eggs. There is a large number of lamps that are available for use in artificial lighting systems, however, each light source has different characteristics (light intensity, wavelength, color, temperature and fluctuations) which may cause positive or negative effect on hens performance, egg quality and production costs. The LED technology is an innovative alternative that can improve the sustainability of the activity, since it has better energy efficiency, longer lifetime and emits light of different colors. This literature review aims to discuss the beneficial characteristics of the LED and its effects on the production of commercial layers.   Key words: Eggs, electric energy, layer production, layers, lighting program.