Improvement of egg production and quality

With fixed costs increasing for egg producers the key to protecting margins is improving productivity and quality. Anything that can be done to increase the number of grade A saleable eggs laid per hen over their lifetimes, will pay dividends. Ensuring that hens get the most out of the diet they are fed helps improve FCR and increases efficiency. Longer cycles increase efficiency and hence sustainability. Whatever strategies are employed it is imperative that egg size is managed, and it isn’t allowed to ‘run away’, which can have both financial and welfare implications. For eggs, shell quality is key to minimising wastage and internal appearance important for customer perception. Supporting the antioxidant status of hens through their lifecycle will not only optimise production but also improve egg freshness and eggshell quality. This means that producers can increase the number of saleable eggs. Tapping into niche market, such as enriched eggs, to increase the selling price of eggs can also offer producers an additional way to protect their margins.

1. The importance of the egg market

Eggs are very popular throughout the world, in part because they are a cheap product and are also extremely nutritious, particularly in terms of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Also, their consumption is not restricted by any culture or believes. World population is expected to grow which means that food production needs to increase accordingly. Eggs, due to their relative low production costs, in addition to reasons listed above, represent the most promising and affordable source of animal protein. For this reason, it is key to protect egg producers’ margins, ensuring they can grow the market efficiently and sustainably.

From a nutritional point of view, eggs have a moderate calorie content (about 150kcal/100g) and are a good source of excellent quality protein (6g per egg) and are also relatively rich in fat-soluble compounds. They can easily be enriched with some key nutrients and, therefore, be a nutritious inclusion in the diet for people of all ages and life stages.

Different factors can affect the production and quality of eggs: the breed of hen, their age (eggshell quality decreases as birds become older), nutritional status and quality of ingredients fed (especially concerning the calcium and phosphorus requirements necessary to build the shell), water quality, heat stress, housing systems, health status and diseases.

2. Challenges and opportunities in egg production

The number of eggs a hen produces over her lifetime is important and as a flock, the timing of peak production and the length of time laying percentage is optimal. However, eggs must be of good quality (yolk color, cracked shell, dirty eggs, albumin viscosity) and produced efficiently (feed intake vs egg mass).
Egg quality deteriorates as hens get older (size of the egg increase making the egg less robust). To make longer laying cycles viable, nutrition must support both eggshell strength and albumen quality. Similarly, after birds reach peak lay, performance will gradually reduce. However, the speed and magnitude of this decline can be controlled using both nutritional solutions and management techniques. By increasing the life of the flock, the time the unit is not producing is reduced and financial modelling shows that there is a significant positive improvement on profitability of increasing flock length. And with breeding companies aiming for their hens to be able to produce 500 eggs per hen, it makes sense to consider lengthening cycles.

3. Preserving margins by increasing overall feed digestibility

The ability of an enzyme to improve global feed digestibility is known as Feedase effect. The action of xylanases and de-branching enzymes such as arabinofuranosidases are key to addressing the main ANFs present in cereals. Their synergistic action efficiently breaks down the arabinoxylan chains, making nutrients more available for endogenous enzymes. This effect improves the release of energy and nutrients including amino acids and phosphorus from feed. Thanks to Feedase effect, nutritionists can reformulate diets, with reducing feed cost without any negative impact on layer performances.
In order to accurately evaluate the Feedase effect, specific digestibility studies have been carried out in laying hens. Hens were ad-libitum fed nutritionally adequate wheat, barley and soybean meal diet (control), with or without Rovabio® Advance, (a multi-carbohydrase). The addition of the enzyme solution increased the apparent metabolizable energy (AME) by 2.74% (Table 1)

a,b Different letters in the same column indicate significant differences (P < 0.05).

Having demonstrated that Rovabio® Advance is able to improve AME and the digestibility of amino acids (dAA); the next step is to assess laying hen performance when fed diets with a lower nutritional density. A trial carried out in CERN in France evaluated the effect of Rovabio® Advance Phy (multi-carbohydrase, combined with 1000 FTU/kg feed phytase) on laying rate, egg mass, egg quality parameters and body weight of laying hens, fed a wheat / soybean meal / sunflower meal diet. The Negative Control diet was 4% lower in AME (-108 kcal), 5% lower in dAA, 0.23% lowe0r in AvP, and 0.23% lower in Ca, compared to breeder recommendations (Positive Control). A total of 1080 Lohmann Brown laying hens were randomly allocated to form 3 treatments and 18 replicates for each treatment, in an experiment that lasted 26 weeks (from 36 weeks of age till 62 weeks of age).

* Different letters in the same column means significant (<0.05)

Rovabio® Advance Phy successfully recovered the loss in performance due to nutrient reductions. As table 2 is showing, egg mass was significantly improved compared to negative and even positive control diets. Improvement in egg mass with Rovabio® Advance Phy supplementation was 4.4% and 3.96% compared to NC and PC respectively. Laying rate was also significantly improved against negative (1.63% unit) and positive control (1.57% unit). FCR was significantly better for Rovabio® Advance Phy group compared to negative (-0.14 unit) and positive (-0.08 unit) control. Egg quality was sustained compared to positive control (dirty eggs or Haugh unit) or even improved (broken eggs and abnormal eggs)
With egg producers under pressure, nutritionists can help by reducing feed costs, whilst optimising performance. Reformulating on energy and amino acids will save a minimum of €10 per ton of feed, whilst maintaining or improving layer performance. The indigestible fraction of feed is reduced by efficiently breaking down plant cell wall structures using carbohydrase enzymes.

4. Increase egg production quality by improving laying hens antioxidant status

Oxidative stress increases as animals age, which in turn can decrease laying performance.
Ageing also lead to a variability in shell quality. Therefore, the organs and tissues involved in egg production need nutritional support; in particular protection against oxidative stress. Selenium (Se), defined as the chief executive of the antioxidant system, is involved in several levels of antioxidant defence. A pure form of organic Se, such as hydroxy-selenomethionine (OH-SeMet) (Selisseo® 2%, Adisseo France SAS) have been studied as an alternative to inorganic supplementation (sodium selenite). Trials in laying hens have shown egg production benefits – particularly in the later stages of lay, when birds were fed OH-SeMet.
A trial pursued in the US, showed an improvement of +2 egg/hens when layers where fed Selisseo® compared to Seleno-Yeast (SY) and +4.3 eggs/hen compared to Sodium Selenite (SS) as shown table 3. The interesting outcome is that this trial was completed under heat stress (ambient temperature 30.5°C / 87°F) and 54.3% humidity) on aged layers (42 to 71 weeks of age).

Selisseo® has also showed to improve feed efficiency by reducing FCR (-4.9%) and improves the longevity and bone quality of laying hens in a Brazilian trial conducted in Paraiba Federal University where tibia resistance was increased by 55% and Seedor index by 17.5% compared to sodium selenite. Seedor index is the value obtained when the bone weight is divided by the length: the higher the value, the denser the bone.
Birds fed Selisseo® had significantly higher egg production that resulted in a significantly greater number of eggs per hen housed (+2 eggs). Those hens fed OH-SeMet also had significantly lower egg mass conversion ratio than hens consuming sodium selenite. This improvement in efficiency was due both to increases in number of eggs laid, as well as the fact that both egg weight and egg mass were significantly higher from hens fed OH-SeMet (Figure 1).

Selisseo® also positively influences the nutritional and technological properties of eggs, which
benefits human health:

• Improvement of Se concentration in the egg +144.4 % compared to sodium selenite (SS) and +55.9% compared to seleno-yeast (SY).
• Improvement of eggshell thickness of 2.6% and eggshell strength of 7.9% compared to SS.
• Improvement of Haugh Units by 78% after 10 days of storage and 6.3% after 14 days at 30°C compared to SS.
• Improvement of nutritional properties by decreasing SFA (saturated fatty acids) and increasing PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids).

5. Improve digestive performance of laying hens

Commercial laying hens face challenges throughout their lives, be that from pathogens, contamination, environmental conditions, and stress. The birds gut offers the greatest potential protection, so producers should do everything to optimise intestinal health. Efficiency of egg production, performance and even egg quality are linked to the gut. Adimix Precision has been shown to improve intestinal health, performance, and egg quality in laying hens.

Adimix Precision is a precision delivery coated sodium butyrat.. Thanks to its specific coating, Adimix Precision can deliver butyrate along the whole digestive tract from stomach to distal part of the intestine and therefore, has the potential to trigger beneficial butyrate-dependent effects throughout the entire digestive tract and to get the most out of butyrate.

• Improved standard performance through an action on the 3 lines of resilience: resilient microbiota, strengthened gut barrier and immunity for an improved intestinal function and an optimization of nutrient utilization. Adimix Precision has shown to increase villi height (+46.9 % compared to control) and crypt depth (-19.8% compared to control) allowing a better villi / crypth ratio (Figure 2). In consequence, the exchange surface of the intestinal wall is improved in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum which leads to better absorption of nutrients.
• Challenge: by enhancing animal resilience, Adimix Precision helps to overcome intestinal damage caused by bacterial, viral, parasites and toxins challenges.
• Food safety: Adimix Precision participates to the reduction of the risk of Campylobacter and Salmonella contamination

A commercial trial was carried out to compare egg quality from layers fed either Adimix Precision (Precision Delivery Coated- Butyrate) at 350g/T or without any butyrate product, under standard conditions. As laying hens get older the percentage of cracked eggs increases, so birds between weeks 69 and 73 of lay, were used in the trial. By including Adimix Precision in the diet, this tendency is reduced from 1.56 to 1.18% (Figure 3). Adimix Precision can also reduce the proportion of dirty eggs, which are caused by, health status, diet, hygiene plan and age. In this trial Adimix Precision reduced the proportion of dirty eggs from 3.12 to 1.32% (p < 0.05) (Figure 4).

6. Mycotoxins, the element ruining all your efforts

Low levels of dietary mycotoxins are responsible for reduced efficiency of poultry production and increased susceptibility to infectious diseases. The most important mycotoxins in naturally contaminated foods and feeds are aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, zearalenone, T-2 toxin, deoxynivalenol (vomitoxin, DON) and fumonisins. In many cases these mycotoxins can be found in combinations. Among all mycotoxins, those of Fusarium species are main contaminants of poultry feed.

Mycotoxins in the diet of layers result in reduced carotenoid content in egg yolk and elevated plasma uric acid level. The addition of mycotoxin inactivators to mycotoxin contaminated diets has been considered the most promising dietary approach to reduce the negative effect of mycotoxins. Toxy-Nil Plus offers powerful protection against broad-spectrum mycotoxin contamination by adsorbing, bio-inactivating and detoxifying mycotoxins.

In a trial the inclusion of the mycotoxin inactivator Toxy-Nil Plus into mycotoxin-contaminated diet resulted in improved egg mass production and higher levels of carotenoids in egg yolk. Layers fed a diet contaminated with T-2 toxin, deoxynivalenol, nivalenol and ochratoxin A had an impaired egg quality combined with the reduced egg production (Table 4). The carotenoid content in yolk was significantly lower (15.5 versus 18.3 μg/g) when mycotoxins were present in feed. Daily egg mass in the same group was 12.4 g lower compared to the control group. The significantly increased plasma uric acid levels after 20 and 50 days of experiment in poultry hens fed mouldy feed confirmed the higher level of oxidative stress caused by the consumption of mycotoxins. Giving birds bad quality feed supplemented with a mycotoxin inactivator with complex matrix resulted in yolk carotenoid levels and plasma uric acid concentrations after 20 and 50 days of the experiment similar to hens fed good feed.

* 324µg/kg T-2 toxin; 218µg/kg deoxynivalenol; 87µg/kg nivalenol and 16µg/kg ochratoxin A
Values within rows with no common superscripts are significantly different (P<0.05)

Product names and availability may vary by region, please contact your local Adisseo representative for more information.