title: Exterior egg quality as affected by enrichment resources layout in furnished laying-hen cages.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to investigate the effects of enrichment resources (a perch, dustbath, and nest) layout in furnished laying-hen cages (FC) on exterior quality of eggs.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and sixty-eight (168) Hy-Line Brown laying hens at 16 weeks of age were randomly distributed to four treatments: small furnished cages (SFC), medium furnished cages type I (MFC-I), medium furnished cages type II (MFC-II), and medium furnished cages type III (MFC-III). Each treatment had 4 replicates or cages with 6 hens for SFC (24 birds for each SFC) and 12 hen/cage for MFC-I, -II, and -III (48 birds for each MFC-I, -II and -III). Following a 2-week acclimation, data collection started at 18 weeks of age and continued till 52 weeks of age. Dirtiness of egg surface or cracked shell as indicators of the exterior egg quality were recorded each week.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that the proportion of cracked or dirty eggs was significantly affected by the FC type (p<0.01) in that the highest proportion of cracked or dirty eggs was found in MFC-I and the lowest proportion of dirty eggs in SFC. The results of this showed that furnished cage types affected both dirty eggs and cracked eggs (p<0.01). The results also indicated that not nest but dustbath lead to more dirty eggs. Only MFC-I had higher dirty eggs at nest than other FC (p< 0.01). The results of dirty eggs in MFC-I and MFC-II compared with SFC and MFC-III seemed suggest that a low position of dustbath led to more dirty eggs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SFC design affected exterior egg quality and the low position of dustbath in FC resulted in higher proportion of dirty eggs.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Donghua
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Fanyu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Yingying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Lisha
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Runxiang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Jianhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bao
keywords: Cage Design; Exterior Egg Quality; Furnished Cage; Laying Hen