How can you ignore the fatty liver problems in the practical breeding of Laying Hens

How can you ignore the fatty liver problems in the practical breeding of Laying Hens

In the modern laying hen culture industry, the degree of intensification is ehanced and the competitive pressure is increasing. Particularly, the environmental change stress, unstable formulation materials, frequent disease, etc.. will bring sustained physiological and pathological burden to the laying hens, and the liver is always in an overloaded state, causing bile acid secretion can not meet the normal needs of the body.

1 High Egg Chicken Hepatobiliary Disease

 As people continue to pursue production and efficiency, the body pressure on the laying hens is increasing, and burden on the liver which is the “biggest processing plant” in the body is undoubtedly huge. The damage of the liver and gallbladder system of laying hens during the 38 weeks to the elimination period is very common, the incidence rate is 60-90%, in which 50%-70% of the mortality is caused by fatty liver.

2 Laying Hen Fatty Liver and Its Harm

 Fatty liver of laying hens, also known as fatty liver syndrome, is a nutritional metabolic disease which is commonly found in laying hens, especially in the breeding after 38 weeks. It is mainly duing to fat imbalance in liver deposition and extrahepatic transport. Firstly, anatomy revealed that a large amount of fat deposition in the abdominal cavity, especially in the abdomen, muscle and glandular stomach. Secondly, the liver is swollen, bleeding, crisp and greasy, and is easy to rupture.

 The occurrence of fatty liver has a huge impact on laying hens, such as increased death rate, lower egg production rate, higher feed-to-egg ratio, and lower eggshell quality, such as increased non-commodity egg rate. The main causes of fatty liver in laying hens are as below:

2.1 Overnutrition

Mainly refers to excess energy in the feed, and it will be stored in the liver by the form of fat.

2.2 Nutritional Deficiency

When there is a deficiency of nutrients such as choline (or choline chloride, betaine), methionine, and vitamins in the feed, there will be a problem of fat transferring from the liver and will cause accumulation in liver cells.

2.3 Less Exercise

Laying hens are kept in the small chicken cage, which will greatly limits its exercise ability, thus the energy consumption is greatly reduced, and the excess energy will be converted into fat.

2.4 Hormone effects

The level of egg production is closely related to the activity of estrogen. Estrogen can promote the synthesis and deposition of the fat in liver.

2.5 Toxin effects

Aflatoxins etc.. can seriously damage the liver, and will decrease the ability of liver to synthesize lipoproteins and reduce the ability of transport fat out of the liver.

2.6 Other factors

High levels of unsaturated fatty acids in the feed, oxidative rancidity of oils, and decreased levels of antioxidants such as vitamins can lead to the production and accumulation of free radicals, which will damage the liver.

3 Application of bile acids in layer production

Bile acids can stimulate the liver to produce a large amount of thin bile to discharge mycotoxins, drug toxins, metabolic toxins and other toxins from the liver through bile. In addition, bile acids can also effectively decompose or combine with endotoxin, relieve liver burden, and keep the liver in optimal work status.

More than 95% of the eggshell components are calcium carbonate. The absorption, deposition and excretion of calcium are regulated by vitamin D3 and its metabolites. D3 is a fat-soluble vitamin, so if the fat-soluble vitamin is not well absorbed, the quality of the eggshell will be seriously affected. Bile acids can effectively increase the absorption of fat and fat-soluble vitamins by emulsifying, activating lipase and carrying fatty acids to prevent poor eggshell calcification.

6,000 Roman layers at 245 days old were randomly divided into control group and experimental group, with 3 replicates in each group and 1000 layers in each replicate. The control group was fed with basic diet, and the experimental group was supplemented with 60 ppm bile acids. The pre-trial period was 7 days and the trial period was 30 days.

Table 1 Effects of bile acids on layer production performance

Note: The different alphabets in the same row indicate that the difference is significant (P<0.05), and the followings are same.

It can be seen from Table 1 that compared with the control group, the egg production rate of the trial group was significantly increased, and the egg feed ratio and the mortality rate were significantly decreased.

In summary, the addition of bile acids in layer feed can effectively relieve the burden on the liver, improve the utilization of fat-soluble vitamins and calcium with better performance of layers and better quality of eggshells to bring considerable economic benefits to the layer farming industry.

Kate Wu

Market development and Regional export director

Shandong Longchang Animal Health Product CO.,Ltd

Add: Room 609, Lushang Plaza, Jinan,Shandong, China 

Tel:86-531-66699786 

Mobile/whatsapp: +86 13256665076

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