title: Effect of daily feed intake in laying period on laying performance, egg quality and egg composition of genetically fat and lean lines of chickens.
abstract: 1. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of feed intake on laying performance, egg quality and egg composition in a Fat line and a Lean line during the laying period (34 to 54 weeks of age). 2. The experiment was a 2 × 2 factorial design with two dietary intake levels (nutrition recommendation and 75% of recommendation) and two broiler genotypes (Fat line and Lean line). Hens (384 of each line) were randomly divided at 23 weeks of age into 4 treatments, with each treatment represented by 12 replicates of 16 birds each. The experiment started when the rate of lay reached 5% and continued until 54 weeks of age. 3. The results indicated that there was a significant interaction between daily feed intake and genotype on egg production, egg weight, percentage yolk, yolk/albumen ratio and yolk cholesterol content. Fat line hens produced significantly more eggs and had a lower incidence of cracked eggs than the Lean line hens. The reduction in feed intake decreased egg weight and increased egg production, egg-shape index and cholesterol content of yolk significantly.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Nutrition, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, China.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D050218:Body Fat Distribution; D001835:Body Weight; D002645:Chickens / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000378:metabolism*; D004435:Eating; D004528:Egg Shell / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D004530:Egg Yolk / Q000378:metabolism*; D004531:Eggs; D005838:Genotype
chemical_list: D002784:Cholesterol