The effects of different moulting diets on bone characteristics and reproductive tracts in commercial brown egg laying hens

Abstract

Feeding with barley and alfalfa in hens during induced moulting diets and their effects on the bone characteristics and the reproductive tracts were investigated. For this purpose, 88 week old 36 Lohmann Brown laying hens were divided into three homogenous groups and each group was fed: i) normal commercial feed ii) barley and iii) alfalfa over the ten day moulting period. The recorded body mass loss of each group over this period was around 18-19%. Although a relative increase in body mass was observed for all groups at the end of the second production cycle, only the value obtained for the normal commercial feeding group had statistical significance (P<0.001). Moulting diets had no influence on the length and mass of bones. Meanwhile, cortical thickness of the femur and tibiotarsus was higher in the alfalfa fed group compared to the other groups (P<0.05). Furthermore, the oviduct mass of the barley group was significantly heavier compared to the others (P<0.05).