Upgrade layer lifecycles to new lengths with nutrition for adaptability
Many layer flocks are operating below their performance potential, because producers are unable to control stressors impacting the potential length of productivity in birds.
This calls for solutions that can help control the response of the bird to a variety of stressors in such a way that high productivity, egg quality and well-being can be maintained for longer.
Research from the University of Athens is helping to increase the understanding of cellular adaptive pathways in the gut and ovary and how they can be regulated by nutritional means with positive effects on layer performance.
Missing Link Between Actual and Potential Performance
The reason why many layer units perform below their potential in terms of productivity and productive life span in hens is often the fact that under commercial conditions the birds are exposed to a variety of stressors that are difficult to control by producers.
These stressors include:
changes in diet,
a rise in ambient temperatures,
xenobiotics (including mycotoxins) in the feed and
the stress of high productivity.
All of these factors have implications for long-term performance and well-being, as well as the quality of the eggs produced.
This means there is a performance gap that can only be closed if there are ways to support the bird to respond to stressors in more efficient ways or if the bird itself becomes more resilient through genetic selection.
In a commercial environment that is increasingly relying on reducing the cost and environmental footprint of production, laying hens that maintain productivity for longer represent a competitive advantage for the profitability and sustainability of egg production.
Oxidative Stress Induces Aging in Laying Hens
Oxidative stress is a well-known factor that affects the long-term health and productivity of key organs for egg production in the laying hen, i.e. the ovary, gut and liver. It is the result of an increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in response to stressors that the body’s own defence mechanisms are no longer able to counterbalance.
Maintaining high levels of production of good quality eggs in an extended production cycle requires hens to develop and maintain healthy and functional ovaries. It is well known that the decline in ovarian functions over the egg production cycle is linked to ovarian ageing.
Oxidative stress is one of the main causes of ovarian ageing, ...
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