Effect of Dietary <i>Chlorella vulgaris</i> or <i>Tetradesmus obliquus</i> on Laying Performance and Intestinal Immune Cell Parameters

Abstract

A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of Chlorella vulgaris (CV) or Tetradesmus obliquus (TO) on laying performance, egg quality, and gut health indicators of laying hens. A total of 144 Hy-Line Brown laying hens aged 21 weeks were randomly assigned to one of three dietary treatments with eight replicates of six hens. Dietary treatments were as follows: CON, basal diet; CV, basal diet + 5 g C. vulgaris/kg of diet; TO, basal diet + 5 g T. obliquus/kg of diet. The results showed that diets supplemented with CV or TO had insignificant effects on laying performance, egg quality (i.e., Haugh unit and eggshell strength and thickness), jejunal histology, cecal short-chain fatty acids, and antioxidant/immune markers in ileal mucosa samples of laying hens. Compared with the control group, the egg yolk color score was higher (p C. vulgaris or T. obliquus can improve egg yolk color and would modulate host immune development and competence in laying hens.

Keywords

• <i>Chlorella vulgaris</i>
• <i>Tetradesmus obliquus</i>
• laying hens
• gut health