Animals (Oct 2021)

Hens That Exhibit Poorer Feed Efficiency Produce Eggs with Lower Albumen Quality and Are Prone to Being Overweight

  • Doreen Onyinye Anene,
  • Yeasmin Akter,
  • Peter Campbell Thomson,
  • Peter Groves,
  • Sonia Liu,
  • Cormac John O’Shea

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11102986
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 10
p. 2986

Abstract

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Feed efficiency (FE) is an important measure of productivity in the layer industry; however, little is known about how FE differs between individual hens during the egg-laying cycle and the implications for egg quality parameters. Individual 25-week-old ISA Brown hens were observed for 42 days, ranked into three FE groups (n = 48 per High (HFE), Medium (MFE) and Low (LFE) FE groups and then monitored later in the laying cycle from 35–40 weeks. The groups exhibited different feed to egg conversion ratios (p p p < 0.001). This study concludes that FE status established in early lay is a stable variable until at least 40 weeks of age, and overweight, mid-laying hens that had poor FE produced inferior egg albumen quality measurements and composition. The distinct traits of the highly efficient hens and the poor feed efficient hens may provide important information to improving productivity in egg production.

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