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Effects of nanocalcium carbonate on egg production performance and plasma calcium of laying hens
Author(s) -
Ganjigohari S.,
Ziaei N.,
Ramzani Ghara A.,
Tasharrofi S.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of animal physiology and animal nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.651
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1439-0396
pISSN - 0931-2439
DOI - 10.1111/jpn.12731
Subject(s) - eggshell , calcium , zoology , feed conversion ratio , body weight , chemistry , calcium carbonate , completely randomized design , breaking strength , biology , endocrinology , ecology , materials science , organic chemistry , composite material
Summary This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of nanocalcium carbonate ( NCC ) instead of calcium carbonate ( CC ) on egg production, egg weight, egg mass, FCR , blood calcium and egg quality characteristics in laying hens. A total of 120 laying hens were used in a 10‐weeks trial, from week 23 to 33 of age. Laying hens were randomly assigned to six treatments with four replications, five hens each. The experimental treatments involved replacing 50% of the CC in the diet by decreasing amounts of NCC and were T1 Basal diet ( BD ) with 8.06% CC ; T2 (6.045% of CC as a negative control); T3 (4.03% of CC replaced by 2.015% NCC ); T4 (4.03% of CC replaced by 1.01% NCC ); T5 (4.03% of CC replaced by 0.252% NCC ) and T6 (4.03 of CC replaced with 0.126% NCC ).Egg weight was unaffected by dietary treatments ( p > .05). However, the egg production percentage and egg mass in T6 were less than that of other treatments ( p < .05). The laying hens in the control group had the best average feed conversion ratio ( p < .05). Also, the lowest concentration of calcium in hens’ blood was recorded for birds fed T6 ( p < .05). The best egg shell quality (relative egg shell weight and egg shell weight/surface) was observed in T1 ( p < .05).Collectively, our results demonstrated that NCC could replace CC at a lower inclusion level but extreme reduction of calcium concentration in diets (to 1.43% Ca in the T6 group) reduced production performance, egg quality characteristics, Tibia thickness and blood calcium of laying hens.