PSVI-16 Inclusion of dietary micelle silymarin on production performance, egg quality, storage capacity, and blood profile Sin Hy-line brown laying hens

Abstract Silymarin is known to have immunomodulating, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. This study aimed to investigate the effects of micelle silymarin (MS) supplementation on production performance, egg quality, egg water loss, and blood profile in Hy-line brown laying hens. For 12 wk, a total of 288, 28-wk-old laying hens were randomly allocated into one of three treatment groups. The dietary treatments were control (CON) a basal diet and a basal diet supplemented with 0.03, and 0.06% of MS. All hens were housed in an individual cage with 38 cm width × 50 cm length × 40 cm height. Growth performance was recorded at d 1, wk 6, and wk 12. The egg production and feed conversion ratio were recorded at the end of every week. The egg quality and water loss were measured at the end of wk 4, 8, and 12. At initial and at the end of wk 12, 5 mL of blood was collected to analyze aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), triglycerides, albumin, and cholesterol concentrations. All data were analyzed by the GLM procedure of SAS. The polynomial orthogonal contrasts of increasing dietary MS supplementation were examined by linear and quadratic effects. The inclusion of MS supplement in laying hen diet did not exhibit significant impact on growth performance. However, MS group showed linear improvement in egg weight, Haugh Units, and eggshell strength throughout the trial period (P 0.05). Additionally, egg yolk color and eggshell thickness indicated linear improvements particularly at wk 4 and 8 (P 0.05). While albumen height and egg water in MS group were linearly increased at wk 12 (P 0.05). Compared with CON, laying hens fed MS supplement has linearly decreased the ALP and cholesterol concentrations in the serum (P 0.05). Based on the findings, we inferred that the inclusion of 0.04 to 0.06% MS in the laying hen diet would not only increase the production performance, egg quality, and egg water loss traits but also to improve laying hens’ health.