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Department of Poultry Science, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843-2472, USA.
The aim of this study was to evaluate effects of alfalfa and fructooligosaccharides (FOS) on molting performance and bone parameters compared with the conventional feed withdrawal molting procedure. A total of 36 Single Comb White Leghorn hens (84 wk of age) were used for this experiment. The hens were divided into 6 treatment groups with 6 birds per treatment: pre-trial control (PC), full fed (FF), feed withdrawal (FW), 100% alfalfa (A100), A100 + 0.375% FOS (A100L), and A100 + 0.75% FOS (A100H). At the end of the 9-d molt period, hens were euthanized, and tibia and femurs were collected to evaluate bone qualities using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), Instron (Model 1011 Instron Universal Testing Machine, Instron Corp., Canton. MA), and conventional bone assays. Egg production was recorded during the molting period to evaluate first day out of production, and ovary was also collected to measure ovary weight. Alfalfa molting diets had comparable molting parameters, such as percentage of BW loss, ovary weight, and first day out of egg production, to the conventional feed withdrawal molting procedure, and FOS supplementation did not have any detrimental effects on molting performance. Conventional bone assay and DXA results suggest that hens lose a considerable amount of bone minerals during a molting period. The tibia and femur bone strengths of the FF, FW, A100, and A100L hens were significantly lower than the PC hens, whereas hens fed A100H had similar tibia bone breaking strength to that of the PC hens. The bone parameters measured by conventional assays, bone breaking strength measured by Instron, and bone density and mineral content measured by DXA were highly correlated to each other.
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