Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Sep;99(9):4384-4397.
doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2020.05.028. Epub 2020 Jun 22.

Consequences of various housing systems and dietary supplementation of thymol, carvacrol, and euganol on performance, egg quality, blood chemistry, and antioxidant parameters

Mahmoud M Abo Ghanima  1 , Mahmoud Alagawany  2 , Mohamed E Abd El-Hack  3 , Ayman Taha  4 , Shaaban S Elnesr  5 , Jamaan Ajarem  6 , Ahmed A Allam  7 , Ayman M Mahmoud  7
Affiliations

Consequences of various housing systems and dietary supplementation of thymol, carvacrol, and euganol on performance, egg quality, blood chemistry, and antioxidant parameters

Mahmoud M Abo Ghanima et al. Poult Sci. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

The present work was carried out to investigate the influences of housing system and dietary essential oils (EOs) supplementation to laying hens on the productive performance, egg quality, immunity, antioxidant parameters, and hematology. A factorial arrangement (2 × 4) was performed, including 2 housing systems and 4 different types of EOs (without EOs, thymol, carvacrol, and euganol) during the production stages (from 28-78 wk of age). Birds were randomly divided into 2 groups with each of 2,000 birds. The first group was moved to laying cages while the second group was a floor reared. Each group was randomly divided into 4 groups (5 replicates of 100 birds each): The first were considered as a control group, and the second, third, and fourth groups were treated with thymol, carvacrol, and euganol EO, respectively. The results showed that hens reared in cage system had higher egg weight (P < 0.05), egg production, egg mass, and feed intake and better feed conversion ratio (P < 0.001) than those reared in the floor system. Blood picture values (except white blood cells), phagocytic index, phagocytic activity, and blood chemistry parameters (except calcium, phosphorus, and urea values) of laying hens were not affected (P > 0.05) by housing system. The groups fed EOs showed a rapid improvement (P < 0.001) in the egg production%, egg weight, egg mass, and egg quality. Thymol group had the highest egg production (P < 0.001). Thymol and eugenol groups had the highest egg weight, egg mass, and egg quality (P < 0.001). The groups fed diets containing thymol or eugenol consumed lower feed and had better feed conversion ratio (P < 0.001) than the control group. Immunity indices (phagocytic activity [P < 0.05], avian influenza [AIH5 and AIH9], P < 0.001) were improved with the presence of EOs in the laying hen diet. These results strongly suggest that dietary EO supplementation could be a successful attempt to improve the productive performance, egg quality, and immunity of laying hens.

Keywords: blood; egg production; essential oil; hen; housing system.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Abd El-Hack M.E., Alagawany M. Performance, egg quality, blood profile, immune function, and antioxidant enzyme activities in laying hens fed diets with thyme powder. J. Anim. Feed Sci. 2015;24:127–133.
    1. Abd El-Hack M.E., Abdelnour S.A., Abd El-Moneim A.E., Arif M., Khafaga A., Shaheen H., Samak D., Swelum A.A. Putative impacts of phytogenic additives to ameliorate lead toxicity in animal feed. Environ. Sci. Poll. Res. 2019;26:23209–23218. - PubMed
    1. Abd El-Hack M.E., Alagawany M., Farag M.R., Tiwari R., Karthik K., Dhama K., Zorriehzahra J., Adel M. Beneficial impacts of thymol essential oil on health and production of animals, fish and poultry: a review. J. Essen. Oil Res. 2016;28:365–382.
    1. Abd El-Hack M.E., Ashour E.A., Elaraby G.M., Osman A.O., Arif M. Influences of dietary supplementation of peanut skin powder (Arachis Hypogaea) on growth performance, carcass traits, blood chemistry, antioxidant activity and meat quality of broilers. Anim. Prod. Sci. 2018;58:965–972.
    1. Abd El-Hack M.E., Mahgoub S.A., Hussein M.M., Saadeldin I.M. Improving growth performance and health status of meat-type quail by supplementing the diet with black cumin cold-pressed oil as a natural alternative for antibiotics. Environ. Sci. Poll. Res. 2018;25:1157–1167. - PubMed