| Livestock Research for Rural Development 31 (2) 2019 | Guide for preparation of papers | LRRD Newsletter | Citation of this paper |
A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary Turmeric extract powder supplementation on egg production, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and egg quality of Ac laying hens from 26 to 34 and 50 to 58 weeks of age. The experiment consisted of two treatments: BS: basal diet (control, no turmeric powder); TP: (0.1% turmeric powder) with ten replicates.
During 26-34 weeks of age, turmeric addition increased egg production and egg mass and improved feed conversion. From 50-58 weeks of age, the addition of turmeric powder increased feed intake and body weight but had no effect on egg mass production. Dietary turmeric treatments did not influence egg quality.
Keywords: curcumin, egg mass, egg weight, feed conversion
Ac chickens are a local black-bone chicken breed that originated in the Mekong delta and are commonly kept in rural areas. They have different characteristics in appearance and size; the body is covered with white feathers, while the beak, tongue, skin, meat and bones are black; their legs are characterized by five black toes. They are a low-growing breed and have small body size with mature weight of 0.9 kg. Ac hens have earlier age at first lay (105-112 days), then slowly reach the peak at 25 to 40 weeks and quickly decline in egg rate after 50 weeks of age as compared with the other commercial breeds. Ac hens are normally culled after 60 weeks of age due to low egg production and high demand of black boned chicken meat. Ac chickens are dual-purpose birds and kept for meat and eggs. Although low in growth performance, their meat and eggs have outstanding flavour. Ac chicken meat is famous with medicinal and health-promoting effects and used as a healthy food for sickness, pregnant women, old people and children. People believe that black meat is functional and has special nutritive value. Eggs of Ac chicken are small size (29-32 g (Tran Thi Mai Phuong and Nguyen Van Thien et al 2008), high in yolk/white ratio of 61-64% (Truong van Phuoc and Nguyen Van Thieet al 2018). Their eggs are palatable and suitable for children. The demand of meat and eggs has been increasing, and because of their relatively high prices, the population of Ac chicken is rising. In the backyard scavenging system, egg production of Ac chicken is low (90 - 95 eggs/year (Tran Thi Mai Phuong and Nguyen Van Thien 2008). However, it can be improved up to 180 – 190 eggs/year by providing good nutrition and disease control (Truong Van Phuoc et al 2016). Because of small size, low growth and egg rate, Ac chickens are mainly keeping in small scale, units, easy to access with low investment. They are a major source of income and nutritionally rich food for households.
The use of antimicrobial growth promoters to improve performance in livestock and chicken has led to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of microbes of risk to human health. Antimicrobial growth promoters have been banned in the European Union (EU 2005) and in USA (FDA 2016). Thus, there is a need to find and develop safer alternative sources to antibiotics for livestock and chickens in particular.
There are many studies done on using of herbal extracts as natural antioxidants (Osawa et al 1995), growth promoters and for disease prevention (Petrovic et al 2012; Abou-Elkhair 2014; Alzawqari et al 2016). Among them, turmeric (Curcuma longa L.), a culinary spice, contains many compounds with high biological activities as anti-microbials (Araujo and Leon 2001; Kim et al 2013), anti-coagulants, anti-diabetics and anti-ulcers (Lokova et al 2001), anti-inflammation, antioxidant (Gandhi et al 2011). Platel and Srinivasan (1996, 2000) reported that curcumin extracted from turmeric stimulates bile acid secretion, and increases lipase, amylase and protease activities. Curcumin can improve liver function, reduce plasma triglycerides, and reduce LDL cholesterol (Emadi and Kermanshahi 2007; Seo et al 2008; Gandhi et al 2011).
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of turmeric extract as a feed additive on feed intake, reproduction, feed conversion and egg quality of Ac laying hens during the peak and past their peak of egg production period.
This study was conducted at Phuoc Khang farm in My Tho city, Tien Giang province, Vietnam from February 2017 to May 2017.
Two hundred and eighty Ac hens were studied in two periods, based on their reproductive characteristics; from 26 to 34 weeks of age which is the peak of lay and 50 to 58 weeks which is a period of low egg production.
Each treatment was randomly allotted to 20 cages with 7 hens per cage in an open-side house (Photos 1 and 2), ventilated with fans and with a daily 17L:7D lighting regime . All birds were vaccinated according to the provincial veterinary program. Feed and water were provided ad libitum.
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| Photo 1. Housing and experimental Ac laying hens |
The experiment was arranged as a completely randomized design of two treatments with ten replicates of seven hens in each. The trial lasted for 8 weeks. The treatments were:
BS: basal diet (Table 1) with no turmeric extract powder (control)
TP: basal diet + 2 g turmeric extract powder (containing 5% curcumin)/kg feed
Turmeric powder was extracted from rhizomes with alcohol (purity of 5% curcumin; 2.53% moisture), purchased from Kim Tai CO., Ltd, HCM City.
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Table 1. Feed formulation and composition of basal diet (air-dry basis) |
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|
Ingredients |
(%) |
|
Maize |
49 |
|
Rice bran |
12 |
|
Fish meal |
3 |
|
Soybean meal |
24 |
|
Tra fish oil |
1 |
|
Coarse limestone |
4 |
|
Fine limestone |
4 |
|
Nutrimix – Layer1 |
3 |
|
Composition |
|
|
Dry matter |
89.9 |
|
Ash |
12.7 |
|
Crude protein |
17.4 |
|
Ether extract |
4.93 |
|
Crude fibre |
2.48 |
|
Calcium |
4.31 |
|
Phosphorus |
0.71 |
|
Lysine |
1.12 |
|
Methionine |
0.44 |
|
MEn (MJ/kg) |
11.8 |
|
(1) Supplied per kg diet: Fe (200mg), Cu (40mg), Zn (60mg), Mn (60mg), Co (0.3mg), Iodine (0.3mg), Se (0.3mg) vitamin A (8000 IU), vitamin B6 (3mg), vitamin D3 (2500 IU), vitamin B12 (15mcg), vitamin E (30mg), pantothenic acid (8mg), vitamin B1 (1.5mg), folic acid (0.5mg), vitamin B2 (4mg), biotin (100 mcg), vitamin K3 (2mg), niacin (20mg), vitamin C (100mg), choline chloride (500mg). (2) Amino acid composition was analyzed from Upscience laboratory. (3)MEn was calculated according to Truong Van Phuoc et al. (2016b) |
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Live weigh gain or loss was calculated from weight at beginning and the end of the experiment. Egg number was recorded daily to calculate egg production as a percentage of eggs produced per bird. Egg weight was determined by weighing all eggs produced per experimental unit by a digital balance to the nearest of 0.01 g accuracy. Feed intake was recorded by feeding weighed quantities of feed daily and subtracting the left over from the previous day. Egg mass was calculated as egg production*egg weight. Feed conversion (g/g) was obtained from feed intake/egg mass. Six eggs were collected from each experimental unit during the last 3 consecutive days at the end of each period and individually weighed. Shape index, egg shell thickness, yolk and albumin index were done according to Anderson et al (2004). Haugh unit (HU) was calculated as follows:
HU=100 log (H+7.57−1.7W37) (Haugh 1937),
where, H is albumen height (mm), measured by spherometer and W is egg observed weight (g). Egg yolk color was evaluated by using Roche colorimetric fan (Yolk color fan, Roches, Switzerland).
Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the General Linear Model (GLM) available in Minitab 13.2. The Tukey test in the same software was used to detect differences among treatment means.
Egg production tended to increase in hens supplemented with turmeric (58.5% vs 54.4%, p= 0.08; Table 2) but the additive had no influence on egg weight. Turmeric supplementation did not affect the feed intake; feed conversion ratio was better (lower) for the hens supplemented with turmeric.
There was a minor increase in weight of hens fed the TU diet, but no change in hens fed the control diet. Addition of Turmeric powder did not influence egg shape index, Haugh unit, yolk and albumen index, egg shell thickness, yolk and albumen ratio (Table 3).
Turmeric supplementation increased feed and egg weight but did not influence egg production nor feed conversion. There were minor losses in body weight in hens fed the control diet (-7.85 g), on the other hand, there was gain in weight in hens supplemented with turmeric (7.14 g).
There were no differences in egg quality (shape index, Haugh unit, and egg components) between the treatments.
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Table 2. Effects of dietary treatments on hen performance |
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Control |
TU |
SEM |
p value |
|
|
26-34 week of age |
||||
|
Daily feed intake, g |
58.5 |
57.8 |
0.28 |
0.11 |
|
Egg production, % |
54.4 |
58.5 |
1.56 |
0.08 |
|
Egg weight, g |
35.7 |
36.4 |
0.38 |
0.22 |
|
Feed conversion, g/g |
3.06 |
2.74 |
0.07 |
0.01 |
|
Egg mass, g/hen/day |
19.4 |
21.3 |
0.52 |
0.02 |
|
Body weight change, g |
0.00 |
10.00 |
- |
- |
|
50-58 week of age |
||||
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Daily feed intake, g |
50.5 |
52.8 |
0.57 |
0.01 |
|
Egg production, % |
44.1 |
44.4 |
1.89 |
0.93 |
|
Egg weight, g |
37.8 |
39.3 |
0.40 |
0.01 |
|
Feed conversion, g/g |
3.08 |
3.08 |
0.13 |
0.90 |
|
Egg mass, g/hen/day |
16.7 |
17.4 |
0.74 |
0.46 |
|
Body weight change, g |
-7.85 |
7.14 |
- |
- |
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Table 3. Effects of dietary treatments on egg characteristics |
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Control |
TU |
SEM |
p value |
|
|
26-34 weeks of age |
||||
|
Shape index |
77.3 |
78.7 |
1.01 |
0.29 |
|
Haugh unit |
77.4 |
78.4 |
1.87 |
0.57 |
|
Yolk index |
0.46 |
0.48 |
0.02 |
0.56 |
|
Albumin index |
0.07 |
0.08 |
0.01 |
0.12 |
|
Yolk ratio, %) |
35.01 |
34.1 |
1.11 |
0.63 |
|
Albumin ratio, %) |
51.3 |
52.6 |
1.21 |
0.34 |
|
Shell ratio, %) |
13.7 |
13.3 |
0.26 |
0.59 |
|
Shell thickness, mm) |
0.34 |
0.35 |
0.01 |
0.45 |
|
Yolk color |
6.15 |
6.00 |
0.22 |
0.23 |
|
50-58 weeks of age |
||||
|
Shape index |
78.1 |
78.6 |
0.96 |
0.67 |
|
Haugh unit |
79.3 |
81.9 |
2.16 |
0.39 |
|
Yolk index |
0.46 |
0.46 |
0.01 |
0.80 |
|
Albumin index |
0.06 |
0.06 |
0.01 |
0.47 |
|
Yolk ratio (%) |
35.3 |
36.3 |
1.04 |
0.50 |
|
Albumin ratio (%) |
51.1 |
50.2 |
1.23 |
0.62 |
|
Shell ratio (%) |
13.6 |
13.5 |
0.50 |
0.86 |
|
Shell thickness (mm) |
0.31 |
0.32 |
0.01 |
0.83 |
|
Yolk color |
6.60 |
6.60 |
0.19 |
0.71 |
The evidence for improved hen performance from turmeric supplementation is indicated by:
From 26 to 34 weeks: the tendency for an increase in egg mass (by10%), the 10% better feed to egg conversion and the 10 g gain in body weight versus no change in the control
From 50 to 58 weeks: no change in egg mass nor in feed conversion but an increase in body weight versus a loss in the control treatment.
In the later stage of the laying cycle (50-58 week of age period), the laying potential of the Ac breed is known to decline. So an egg laying response to turmeric was not unexpected; however, the turmeric group experienced a gain in weight while the control group lost weight – implying a better nutritional status due to the turmeric powder additive in this period.
The benefits from turmeric powder supplementation on egg production in the 28-34 weeks of age stage are supported by mostly positive results in the literature (Malekizadeh et al 2012; Park et al 2012; Rahardja et al 2015; Kanagaraju et al 2017; Gumus et al 2018; Johannah et al 2018).
Reports of turmeric powder additives on hen live weight indicated no benefits (Gumus et al 2018), However, these authors used “specialized” layer breeds which can be expected to favour egg production rather than body weight gain. By contrast, the Ac breed is considered to be of dual-purpose characteristics as witnessed by its capacity to produce meat that is much appreciated by consumers (eg:…. the black boned chicken meat has more flavour and has a high price!!).
This present study found that turmeric supplementation did not influence egg quality especially egg yolk color that is an important feature highly preferred by consumers. This finding is in agreement with those of Laganá et al (2011) and da Silva et al (2018), who reported that dried turmeric root did not promote egg yolk pigment. In contrast, Gumus et al (2018) and Park et al (2012) reported that yolk color in eggs from hens fed 0.5% turmeric powder increased in comparison with the control.
Chicken farmers often add synthetic pigments to the feed to improve egg yolk color, but this also increases cost. Thus, there is increasing interest in finding natural sources of pigment. Turmeric could be a promising alternative material; however, results are variable and further studies are needed.
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Received 26 November 2018; Accepted 17 January 2019; Published 1 February 2019