Effects of extracted of rice bran supplementation on production performance, feed intake, egg quality and fecal microflora in laying hens

Abstract Text: A total of 288 Hy-line Brown (46-week old) laying hens were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments. The trial lasted for 6 weeks. Treatments were: 1) CON, basal diet; 2) T1, CON + 0.01% extracted rice bran; 3) T2, CON + 0.02% extracted rice bran. There were 8 replicates per treatment with 12 birds per replicate. Egg production and feed consumption were recorded daily and weekly, respectively. The egg production was expressed as an average hen-day production. Egg quality was checked every week throughout the trial period. Eggshell breaking strength was evaluated using egg shell force gauge model II. Egg weight, yolk color, yolk height, and Haugh unit (HU) were evaluated using an egg multi tester. Finally, egg shell thickness of the large end, equatorial region, and the small end were measured using a dial pipe gauge. One gram of fecal sample from each cage was diluted with 9 mL of 1% peptone broth (Becton, Dickinson and Co., Franklin Lakes, NJ) and homogenized. Viable counts of bacteria in the fecal samples were then conducted by plating serially diluted samples (10-fold dilutions in 1% peptone solution) onto MacConkey agar plates (Difco Laboratories, Detroit, MI) and lactobacilli medium III agar plates (Medium 638, DSMZ, Braunschweig, Germany) to isolate E. coli and lactobacillus, respectively. All data were subjected to the GLM procedures of SAS and differences among treatments were separated by Tukey’s multiple range test with a P < 0.05 indicating a significance. The results showed that egg production percentage increased linearly (P < 0.05) during weeks 5 (CON=88.1%,  T1=90.8%, T2=92.3%), 6 (CON=90.3%, T1=91.1%, T2=93.3%), and overall period of the experiment (CON=89.6%, T1=91.0%, T2=91.7%). Any significant effect was not observed on feed intake during overall period of the experiment (CON=108.5 g, T1=108.5 g, T2=109.1 g). Increasing levels of dietary extracted rice bran improved eggshell thickness linearly P < 0.05 (CON=40.9 mm^-2, T1=41.1 mm^-2,T2=41.2 mm^-2),  but the other parameters of egg quality were not affected significantly. The results also showed that addition of extracted rice bran to the diet of laying hens decreased the count of fecal E. coli (CON=6.63 log₁₀CFU/g, T1=6.47 log₁₀CFU/g, T2=6.37 log₁₀CFU/g) and increased the count of fecal lactobacillus (CON=7.44 log₁₀CFU/g, T1=7.49 log₁₀CFU/g, T2=7.72 log₁₀CFU/g) significantly. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of 0.02 % extracted rice bran improved egg production percentage and fecal microflora in laying hens.

Keywords: Extracted rice bran, egg quality, laying hens