• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.831-837
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• 2013

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of Rhodobacter capsulatus KCTC-2583 on egg-yolk and serum cholesterol, egg production and quality parameters during the late laying periods in hens. A total of 160 Hy-Line Brown layers (54 wk-old) were randomly allotted to 4 treatment groups on the basis of laying performance. Each treatment had 4 replicates with 10 birds each (40 birds per treatment). Two hens were confined individually with cage size $35{\times}35{\times}40$ cm and each 10 birds (5 cages) shared a common feed trough between them forming one experimental unit. Dietary treatments were; basal diet supplemented with 0 (control), 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15% R. capsulatus KCTC-2583. Experimental diets were fed in meal form for 56 d. Dietary supplementation of increasing levels of R. capsulatus KCTC-2583 reduced (linear, p<0.05) egg-yolk cholesterol and triglycerides (d 28, 42 and 56) concentrations. Also, serum cholesterol and triglycerides (d 21, 42 and 56) concentrations were linearly reduced (p<0.05) with increasing dietary R. capsulatus KCTC-2583. Laying hens fed a diet supplemented with increasing levels of R. capsulatus KCTC-2583 had increased (linear; p<0.05) overall egg production, egg weight, egg mass and feed efficiency. However, dietary treatments had no effect (linear or quadratic; p>0.05) on feed intake of laying hens. At d 28 and 56, breaking strength and yolk colour of eggs were linearly improved (p<0.05) in laying hens fed dietary increasing levels of R. capsulatus KCTC-2583. Dietary treatment had no effects (linear or quadratic; p>0.05) on albumin height, shell thickness and shell weight at any period of experiment. These results indicate that dietary supplementation of R. capsulatus KCTC-2583 has the potential to improve the laying hen performance and lead to the development of low cholesterol eggs during late laying period in Hy-Line Brown hens.