Nowadays, there is much legislation in the world devoted to restrict the use of synthetic antibiotics in the poultry industry, which could reduce performance rate and production profits. Various phyto-biotic growth promoters have been proposed to serve as antibiotic alternatives with emphasis on plant extracts and essential oils. This study was conducted to assess the impacts of using the oregano essential oil (OEO) (comprised of 5% thymol and 65% carvacrol) and Enviva essential oil (EEO) (4.5% cinnamaldehyde and 13.5% thymol) as phytobiotic feed additives (PFA) on growth performance, cecal microbiota and serum biochemicals of growing ducks. In total, 800 11-day-old ducklings, housed in 20 floor pens, were allotted randomly into five dietary treatments: (i) A basal diet (BD) (control), (ii.) BD+50 mg EEO/kg, (iii.) BD+100 mg EEO/kg, (iv.) BD+150 mg OEO/kg and (v.) BD+300 mg OEO/kg diet. The growth performance traits were studied between 11 and 42 days of age. At the experiment end, 40 ducks were slaughtered (eight/ treatment) and cecal digesta and blood samples were collected to estimate the cecal bacterial populations and serum blood biochemicals. The results indicated that the tested levels of OEO and EEO did not display any significant effect (P>0.05) on the duck’s final BW, BW gain, growth rate, feed intake, feed conversion ratio or survivability rate. Besides, the different levels of EEO and OEO decreased the cecal populations of Coliforms (P0.01), total aerobes (P0.01) and lactose-negative Enterobacteria (P0.05) in comparison with those of the control group. Finally, the tested EEO and OEO levels did not show any significant effect on the serum variables; in terms of total protein, albumin, globulin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase. In conclusion, the antimicrobial effect of the OEO and EEO against the cecal microbiota has been proven, while they did not display significant effects on the growth performance or blood variables of growing ducks.

The hydroponic fodder industry has been extensively advertised and has a renewed interest among scientists and livestock producers. This study was designed to evaluate the nutritional impacts of hydroponically sprouted barley (HSB) as a feed supplement on egg production, egg quality, reproductive performance, and blood analyses of laying Japanese quails. Seventy-two laying Japanese quails, housed in twelve battery cages, each of six birds (two males + four females), were assigned randomly to three feeding treatments: (i) a commercial diet provided ad libitum (control), (ii) ad libitum diet plus fresh HSB (ad lib + HSB), and (iii) a restricted feed amount of the same diet (15% lower than that of the control), plus fresh HSB (RST + HSB). The data collection continued for 11 weeks. The fresh-8-days HSB contained 163.8 g/kg of dry matter, with crude protein and aNDFom contents of 230.3 g/kg DM, and 267 g/kg DM. Compared to the control diet, the ad lib + HSB had a higher (P 0.05) egg laying rate (0.963 vs. 0.888), fertility (0.921 vs. 0.886), number of hatched chicks, relative weights of the gizzard and testis, and longer oviducts. On the other hand, the RST+ HSB treatment maintained a similar egg laying rate and fertility to those of the controls (P > 0.05), but with a lower daily egg mass (10.84 vs. 11.29 g egg/female/day) and hatchability (0.582 vs. 0.671). The egg quality variables, activity of blood total antioxidant capacity, and plasma contents of cholesterol, free fatty acids, total protein and globulin were not affected by the treatments. To conclude, the feed restriction (-15% of feed amount) did not increase the HSB intake, and the ingested HSB amount did not completely compensate the reduction in nutrient intake, which led to reduced daily egg mass, fertility and hatchability. Providing the ad libitum fed laying Japanese quail with fresh HSB significantly increased the egg laying rate, relative weights of gizzard and testis, fertility and number of hatched chicks/female, but did not affect egg quality indices or blood analysis.

The hydroponic fodder industry has been extensively advertised and has a renewed interest among scientists and livestock producers. This study was designed to evaluate the nutritional impacts of hydroponically sprouted barley (HSB) as a feed supplement on egg production, egg quality, reproductive performance, and blood analyses of laying Japanese quails. Seventy-two laying Japanese quails, housed in twelve battery cages, each of six birds (two males + four females), were assigned randomly to three feeding treatments: (i) a commercial diet provided ad libitum (control), (ii) ad libitum diet plus fresh HSB (ad lib + HSB), and (iii) a restricted feed amount of the same diet (15% lower than that of the control), plus fresh HSB (RST + HSB). The data collection continued for 11 weeks. The fresh-8-days HSB contained 163.8 g/kg of dry matter, with crude protein and aNDFom contents of 230.3 g/kg DM, and 267 g/kg DM. Compared to the control diet, the ad lib + HSB had a higher (P 0.05) egg laying rate (0.963 vs. 0.888), fertility (0.921 vs. 0.886), number of hatched chicks, relative weights of the gizzard and testis, and longer oviducts. On the other hand, the RST+ HSB treatment maintained a similar egg laying rate and fertility to those of the controls (P > 0.05), but with a lower daily egg mass (10.84 vs. 11.29 g egg/female/day) and hatchability (0.582 vs. 0.671). The egg quality variables, activity of blood total antioxidant capacity, and plasma contents of cholesterol, free fatty acids, total protein and globulin were not affected by the treatments. To conclude, the feed restriction (-15% of feed amount) did not increase the HSB intake, and the ingested HSB amount did not completely compensate the reduction in nutrient intake, which led to reduced daily egg mass, fertility and hatchability. Providing the ad libitum fed laying Japanese quail with fresh HSB significantly increased the egg laying rate, relative weights of gizzard and testis, fertility and number of hatched chicks/female, but did not affect egg quality indices or blood analysis.

The hydroponic fodder industry has been extensively advertised and has a renewed interest among scientists and livestock producers. This study was designed to evaluate the nutritional impacts of hydroponically sprouted barley (HSB) as a feed supplement on egg production, egg quality, reproductive performance, and blood analyses of laying Japanese quails. Seventy-two laying Japanese quails, housed in twelve battery cages, each of six birds (two males + four females), were assigned randomly to three feeding treatments: (i) a commercial diet provided ad libitum (control), (ii) ad libitum diet plus fresh HSB (ad lib + HSB), and (iii) a restricted feed amount of the same diet (15% lower than that of the control), plus fresh HSB (RST + HSB). The data collection continued for 11 weeks. The fresh-8-days HSB contained 163.8 g/kg of dry matter, with crude protein and aNDFom contents of 230.3 g/kg DM, and 267 g/kg DM. Compared to the control diet, the ad lib + HSB had a higher (P 0.05) egg laying rate (0.963 vs. 0.888), fertility (0.921 vs. 0.886), number of hatched chicks, relative weights of the gizzard and testis, and longer oviducts. On the other hand, the RST+ HSB treatment maintained a similar egg laying rate and fertility to those of the controls (P > 0.05), but with a lower daily egg mass (10.84 vs. 11.29 g egg/female/day) and hatchability (0.582 vs. 0.671). The egg quality variables, activity of blood total antioxidant capacity, and plasma contents of cholesterol, free fatty acids, total protein and globulin were not affected by the treatments. To conclude, the feed restriction (-15% of feed amount) did not increase the HSB intake, and the ingested HSB amount did not completely compensate the reduction in nutrient intake, which led to reduced daily egg mass, fertility and hatchability. Providing the ad libitum fed laying Japanese quail with fresh HSB significantly increased the egg laying rate, relative weights of gizzard and testis, fertility and number of hatched chicks/female, but did not affect egg quality indices or blood analysis.

The hydroponic fodder industry has been extensively advertised and has a renewed interest among scientists and livestock producers. This study was designed to evaluate the nutritional impacts of hydroponically sprouted barley (HSB) as a feed supplement on egg production, egg quality, reproductive performance, and blood analyses of laying Japanese quails. Seventy-two laying Japanese quails, housed in twelve battery cages, each of six birds (two males + four females), were assigned randomly to three feeding treatments: (i) a commercial diet provided ad libitum (control), (ii) ad libitum diet plus fresh HSB (ad lib + HSB), and (iii) a restricted feed amount of the same diet (15% lower than that of the control), plus fresh HSB (RST + HSB). The data collection continued for 11 weeks. The fresh-8-days HSB contained 163.8 g/kg of dry matter, with crude protein and aNDFom contents of 230.3 g/kg DM, and 267 g/kg DM. Compared to the control diet, the ad lib + HSB had a higher (P 0.05) egg laying rate (0.963 vs. 0.888), fertility (0.921 vs. 0.886), number of hatched chicks, relative weights of the gizzard and testis, and longer oviducts. On the other hand, the RST+ HSB treatment maintained a similar egg laying rate and fertility to those of the controls (P > 0.05), but with a lower daily egg mass (10.84 vs. 11.29 g egg/female/day) and hatchability (0.582 vs. 0.671). The egg quality variables, activity of blood total antioxidant capacity, and plasma contents of cholesterol, free fatty acids, total protein and globulin were not affected by the treatments. To conclude, the feed restriction (-15% of feed amount) did not increase the HSB intake, and the ingested HSB amount did not completely compensate the reduction in nutrient intake, which led to reduced daily egg mass, fertility and hatchability. Providing the ad libitum fed laying Japanese quail with fresh HSB significantly increased the egg laying rate, relative weights of gizzard and testis, fertility and number of hatched chicks/female, but did not affect egg quality indices or blood analysis.

Owing to the practical interest in understanding duration of fertility (DF) to reduce the cost of producing hatching eggs by decreasing the frequency of artificial insemination, as well to uncover the mechanism of the estrogen-gut microbiome axis, elucidating the interaction between the maternal microbiome and the function of sperm storage tubules (SST) has become important for revealing the DF in laying hens. In this study, we investigated the compositional, structural, and functional differences in gut microbiomes between hens with high (HSST, n = 8) and low SST activity (LSST, n = 10) by performing phenotypic selection from approximately 400 individual hens based on their DFs. Their cecal microbial communities were analyzed by sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. The microbiome abundance estimators from the ceca of HSST and LSST hens were not significantly different at the phylum and genus taxonomic levels, although the relative abundances for the phylum Firmicutes and the genus Lactobacillus were higher in the HSST group. Furthermore, some taxonomic levels of bacteria expressing the components of several metabolic pathways differed between the HSST and LSST groups. Moreover, predicting functional microbiomes by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) revealed that certain pathways, such as the metabolism of carbohydrates and protein, cellular processes, and organismal systems, of the HSST group exhibited higher expression of genes associated with bioactivity and energy biosynthesis than those in the LSST group. Our results may provide insights into hen-microbe interactions with respect to DF and will be useful in establishing a strategy for new research to uncover the functional regulation of SST in laying hens.

This study was aimed at estimating the dietary manganese (Mn) requirement for laying duck breeders. A total of 504 Longyan duck breeders (body weight: 1.20 ± 0.02 kg) aged 17 wk were randomly allocated to 6 treatments. The birds were fed a basal diet (Mn, 17.5 mg/kg) or diets supplemented with 20, 40, 80, 120 or 160 mg/kg Mn (as MnSO4·H2O) for 18 wks. Each treatment had 6 replicates of 14 ducks each. As a result of this study, dietary Mn supplementation did not affect the productive performance of laying duck breeders in the early laying period (17 to 18 wk), but affected egg production, egg mass and feed conversion ratio (FCR) from 19 to 34 wk (P 0.05), and there was a linear and quadratic effect of supplement level (P 0.05). The proportion of pre-ovulatory ovarian follicles increased (P 0.01) linearly and quadratically, and atretic follicles (weight and percentage) decreased (P 0.05) quadratically with dietary Mn supplementation. The density and breaking strength of tibias increased (quadratic; P 0.05), the calcium content of tibias decreased (linear, quadratic; P 0.01), and Mn content increased (linear, quadratic; P 0.001) with increasing Mn. The addition of Mn had a quadratic effect on serum contents of estradiol, prolactin, progesterone, luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone (P 0.001). Dietary Mn supplementation decreased serum contents of total protein (linear, P 0.05), glucose (quadratic, P 0.05), total bilirubin, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and calcium (linear, quadratic; P 0.05). The serum total antioxidant capacity, and total and Mn-containing superoxide dismutase activities increased (linear, quadratic; P 0.001), and malondialdehyde content decreased (linear, quadratic; P 0.001) in response to Mn supplemental levels. The dietary Mn requirements, in mg/kg for a basal diet containing 17.5 mg/kg Mn, for Longyan duck breeders from 19 to 34 weeks of age were estimated to be 84.2 for optimizing egg production, 85.8 for egg mass, and 95.0 for FCR. Overall, dietary Mn supplementation, up to 160 mg/kg feed, affected productive performance, tibial characteristics, serum biochemical and antioxidant status of layer duck breeders. Supplementing this basal diet (17.5 mg/kg Mn) with 85 to 95 mg/kg additional Mn was adequate for laying duck breeders during the laying period.

This study evaluated the effects of different dietary zinc (Zn) levels on productive and reproductive performance, egg quality, tibial characteristics, plasma biochemical and antioxidant indices, and zinc deposition in laying duck breeders. A total of 504 Longyan duck breeders aged 21 wk were randomly allocated to 6 treatments and fed a basal diet (Zn, 27.7 mg/kg) or that basal diet supplemented with Zn (as ZnSO4·H2 O) at 10, 20, 40, 80, or 160 mg Zn per kg of feed for 20 wk. Each group had 6 replicates of 14 ducks each. Dietary Zn supplementation affected (P 0.05) the egg production, FCR, and shell thickness of laying duck breeders from 21 to 40 wk, and there was a quadratic (P 0.05) effect between them. Dietary Zn supplementation affected (P 0.05) and quadratically (P 0.001) increased the breaking strength, density, and dry defatted weight of tibias. Alkaline phosphatase, calcium, phosphorus, total superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and malondialdehyde (MDA) activities or content in plasma were affected (P 0.05), and quadratically (P 0.01) changed by dietary Zn levels. Dietary Zn supplementation affected (P 0.01) and increased the Zn deposition in egg yolk (linear, P 0.05; quadratic, P 0.001) and tibia (linear, P 0.05). The dietary Zn requirements, in mg/kg for a basal diet containing 27.7 mg/kg Zn, for Longyan duck breeders from 21 to 40 wk of age were estimated to be 65.4 for optimizing egg production, 68.6 for FCR, 102 for hatchling BW, 94.7 for eggshell thickness, 77.2 for tibial breaking strength, 81.4 for tibial density, 78.9 for tibial dry defatted weight, 69.5 for plasma GSH-Px activity, 72.4 for plasma MDA content, and 94.6 for Zn content in tibia. Overall, dietary Zn supplementation, up to 160 mg/kg feed, affected the productive performance, eggshell thickness, tibial characteristics, plasma antioxidant status, and Zn deposition of layer duck breeders. Supplementing this basal diet (27.7 mg/kg Zn) with 70 to 80 mg/kg additional Zn was adequate for laying duck breeders during the laying period.

This study evaluated the optimal concentrations of dietary Se for the productive and reproductive performance, tibial quality, and antioxidant status in duck breeders aged 23 to 49 wk. In total, 432 Longyan duck breeders aged 22 wk were allotted randomly to 6 treatments, each with 6 replicates of 12 individually caged birds. The experiment lasted for 27 wk, and birds were fed corn-soybean meal-based diets containing 0.11, 0.19, 0.27, 0.35, 0.43, or 0.51 mg Se/kg, respectively. The tested dietary Se levels did not affect egg production and tibial quality of duck breeders. The Se contents of the shell, yolk or albumin, whole egg, and the fertility of set eggs increased in a linear and quadratic manner (P 0.05) in response to the increased dietary Se level, whereas the yolk malondialdehyde (MDA) and embryonic mortality decreased. The activities of glutathione peroxidase 3 (Gpx3) in plasma and Gpx1 in the erythrocytes and livers of breeder ducks increased in a linear and quadratic manner (P 0.05) in response to increased dietary Se levels, whereas the total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) activity increased and the MDA concentration decreased in the liver. The activity of Gpx3 in the plasma and Gpx1 in the erythrocytes and livers of newly hatched ducklings increased linearly (P 0.01) with the increase in Se level, whereas the T-SOD activity and MDA concentration did not change. In conclusion, diets containing 0.27 mg Se/kg led to the highest egg fertility and hatchability in Longyan duck breeders, and using levels >0.19 mg Se/kg diet enhanced the antioxidant capacity in breeders and their offspring. The regression model indicated that dietary Se levels 0.19, 0.27, 0.28, 0.24, and 0.30 mg/kg are optimal levels to obtain maximum Se deposition efficiency in eggs, egg fertility, Gpx1 activity in erythrocytes and liver in duck breeders, and plasma activity of Gpx3 in newly hatched ducklings, respectively.

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