Housing systems and type of supplemental vitamin-mineral premix in hens’ diets influenced deposition of vitamin in eggs at the late laying phase

Abstract

Effects of five different proprietary vitamin-mineral premix (VMP) and two housing systems (HS) on deposition of vitamin B1 (thiamine), B6 (pyridoxine), D3 (cholecalciferol), and folic acid in eggs of hens at the late laying stage were investigated. Black Bovan Nera hen strain (n=480) aged 59 weeks were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments; each treatment was replicated six times with eight hens per replicate. The hens were raised in a conventional cage and an open-sided deep litter (DPL) HS. Five isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets were formulated and each was supplemented with 0.25% proprietary VMP 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for the hens in cage and DL in 2x5 factorial arrangement and completely randomized design. At age 71 weeks, six randomly selected eggs per treatment (n=60) were processed and assayed for vitamin B1, folate, B6 and D3. Significantly higher (p<0.05) thiamine deposition (0.063 mg/100g) was in the eggs of hens on VMP5 with similar (p>0.05) content of pyridoxine, folic acid and vitamin D. The HS had significant impact on vitamin D (93.969 IU) and foliate content (51.909 mg/100g) of the eggs in the DPL. Effect of interactions of HS x VMP on pyridoxine, folic acid and vitamin D3 deposition in egg were similar (p>0.05) but was significantly higher (p<0.05) for thiamine deposition. Hens from DPL had higher vitamins deposition in egg than cage, while vitamin depositions in eggs were influenced by different the proprietary VMP and HS.

Keywords: Deep litter, Battery, Proprietary vitamin-mineral premixes, Vitamin composition