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METABOLISM AND NUTRITION |
Department of Poultry Science, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843
1 Corresponding author: ogutierrez{at}tamu.edu
| ABSTRACT |
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Key Words: guar laying hen egg production
| INTRODUCTION |
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The use of guar meal in poultry feed has been limited because of reported adverse effects, which include diarrhea, depressed growth rate, and increased mortality, when fed at relatively high levels (Sathe and Bose, 1962; Couch et al., 1967; Verma and McNab, 1982; Patel and McGinnis, 1985). Residual guar gum, a highly viscous galactomannan polysaccharide consisting of a ß-1
4-linked D-mannopyranose backbone with branched
-1
6-D-galactopyranose, is probably the primary factor responsible for the reported ill effects (Verma and McNab, 1982; Conner, 2002; Lee et al., 2003), although other anti-nutritional factors such as saponins (Verma and McNab, 1984a; Curl et al., 1986) and polyphenols (Bajaj et al., 1978; Kaushal and Bhatia, 1982) have been reported to cause liver, kidney, and intestinal damage in mice and rats (Berman et al., 1995; Diwan et al., 2000).
Although feeding high levels of nondigestible polysaccharide has been associated with decreased nutrient utilization, numerous investigations have shown some beneficial physiological functions of galactomannans, such as those found in guar beans. These include decreased plasma cholesterol (Dario Frias and Sgarbieri, 1998; Favier et al., 1998; Yamamoto et al., 2000; Maisonnier et al., 2001), decreased postprandial serum glucose (Fairchild et al., 1996; Ou et al., 2001), reduced postprandial hypotension in type 2 diabetes patients (Groop et al., 1993; Russo et al., 2003), inhibited colonization of pathogenic gastrointestinal bacteria (Bengmark, 1998), and enhanced macrophage activity (Duncan et al., 2002).
Previous investigations evaluating the effects of feeding guar by-products on laying hen performance are sparse, with the majority being carried out on late-phase laying hens (Saxena and Pradhan, 1974; Verma and McNab, 1984b; Patel and McGinnis, 1985; Nagra and Virk, 1986). It is generally agreed that guar meal incorporated at concentrations of 10% or higher decreases egg production and feed efficiency and diminishes egg yolk color. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of feeding relatively low concentrations of guar germ and guar meal on egg production, egg interior quality, and shell quality in peaking high-production laying hens.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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where H is albumin height (mm) and W is egg weight (g; Panda, 1996). Eggshell thickness was measured with an Ames micrometer (model 25ME) at the middle part of the egg after the shell membrane was peeled away from the shell. The yolk color of eggs was measured on the first and fourth week of the experiment using a Minolta chromameter (model CR-200, Minolta, Osaka, Japan) with the CIELAB (L*, a*, b*) system. Specific gravity was measured on Wednesday of every other week by measuring the displacement volume of eggs submerged in water (Shugar and Ballinger, 1990).
Statistical Procedure
The experiment was modeled as a 5 x 5 Latin square design (Kuehl, 1999). The data for one-time measured responses (BW gain, overall hen-day egg production, feed consumption, FCR, mean egg weight, and total egg mass per hen) were subjected to one-way ANOVA. The data for repeated measured responses (BW, periodical egg production, egg weight, feed consumption, FCR, Haugh units, yolk color, shell quality, and solid egg components) were first subjected to analysis of time trend effects and a time x treatment interaction by the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) procedure because the sphericity test revealed that the correlations between the 2 time points were different (P
0.05). The multivariate analysis of variance revealed that either time effects or a time x treatment interaction or both existed (P
0.05) in almost all of these responses, so data were then analyzed for variance based on each time point of the measurements. Analyses of variance were carried out using the GLM procedure of SAS (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC) with fixed effect factors of row and column in a square, guar fraction, and level. The PDIFF option within the GLM procedure was used to compare each mean of guar treatment to the control. Contrasts were constructed to examine main effects and the interaction of guar fraction and level. Means presented were least squares means, and were deemed different when P
0.05.
| RESULTS |
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Feed Consumption.
During the first 4-wk period (21 to 24 wk), hens fed guar meal consumed significantly more feed than hens fed the control diet. No difference was observed thereafter between the guar treatment groups and the control. No significant difference was observed between hens fed guar fractions and those fed the control diet (Table 2
).
FCR.
For periodic FCR, significant differences existed between the 2.5% guar meal group and the control during the third, fourth, and fifth experimental periods (29 to 40 wk), leading to a significant overall increase in hens fed 2.5% guar meal (Table 2
). All other guar-treated groups were not different from the control during any period. A guar fraction x level interaction was detected during the third and fourth periods in that FCR decreased as the guar meal level increased from 2.5 to 5%, but remained unchanged as the guar germ level increased.
Egg Weight.
Egg weight increased as hen age increased. No significant main effects or interactions of guar fractions and concentrations were detected in any individual trial period, although a significant difference was noted in overall mean egg weight between hens fed 2.5% guar by-products and the control group (Table 2
). We expect that this difference in main effects was due to the decreased egg weight observed in hens fed 2.5% guar meal.
Total Egg Mass.
Hens fed 2.5% guar meal had significantly lower total egg mass per hen than the control group, whereas the other treatment groups were not different from the control (Table 2
). A guar fraction x level interaction was detected in that total egg mass increased as guar meal concentration increased, whereas no increase was observed as guar germ was added to the diet.
Egg Quality
Haugh Units.
The Haugh units of eggs from control hens were higher in wk 27, 29, 31, and 39 than those from hens fed 5% guar meal, and were higher in wk 37 than those fed 2.5% guar meal, with interactions between the guar fraction and concentration observed only in wk 31 and 33 (periodic data not shown). Overall, no main effects or interactions were detected between the guar fraction and level (Table 3
).
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The redness values of the egg yolks of hens fed guar treatments were similar to the controls, with a few exceptions that had no discernible pattern. Unlike luminosity values, the redness value was not affected by the concentration of guar product, but the type of fraction had significant effects in wk 29 and thereafter in a pattern indicating that guar meal treatments had lower redness values than guar germ treatments (Table 3
). With respect to yellowness values, no difference between guar-fed groups and the control were detected over the course of the trial (Table 3
).
Eggshell Quality.
With respect to eggshell quality (breaking force, thickness, and specific gravity), differences between guar-treated groups and the control were detected sparingly (periodic data not shown). Over the course of the study, main effects and an interaction of guar fraction x level on shell quality were not observed (Table 3
).
Egg Components
Significant differences between hens fed guar by-products and the control were observed only sparingly, with no discernible trend (data not shown). The water content in eggs across experimental treatments was very uniform, with an average water content of all eggs tested of 69.6%. Fresh egg weight increased from an average of 51.8 g at 22 wk of age to an average of 60.9 g at 40 wk of age. With respect to egg solids, the mean yolk weight of all eggs measured increased from 5.67 to 8.09 g when hens were aged 22 to 40 wk, contributing to an increasing egg yolk content, from 36.0 to 43.5%. The dry weight of albumen was very uniform, at approximately 4.7 g over all eggs measured. The mean dry weight of eggshells increased slightly, from 5.5 g at 22 wk of age to 5.9 g at 40 wk of age.
Mortality
The mortality data were not subjected to statistical analysis. Among the 25 laying hens in each treatment group, only 2 in the 2.5% guar germ treatment and 2 in the 2.5% guar meal treatment group died over the course of the study.
| DISCUSSION |
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No effect of feeding guar by-products was observed on overall hen-day egg production, which suggested that both guar germ and guar meal can be incorporated into high-production laying hen diets at a level up to 5% with-out deleterious effects on egg production, in agreement with previous work in our laboratory (C. Zhang, A. L. Cartwright, and C. A. Bailey, unpublished data). Interestingly, an increase of approximately 2% in overall egg production was observed when guar meal concentration was increased from 2.5 to 5%, although no significant difference was noted.
The increased feed consumption of hens fed guar treatments indicated that the unfavorable characteristics of guar by-products do not necessarily decrease the feed consumption of laying hens when added at low levels, which is supported by previous data (C. Zhang, A. L. Cartwright, and C. A. Bailey, unpublished data). Feed conversion ratio for hens fed 2.5% guar meal was significantly higher than for the control group, although no significant differences were detected among other guar treatments and the control.
Other than hens fed 2.5% guar meal, the overall egg weights of hens fed guar by-products were not different from those of the control group throughout the study. Similar results for egg size were reported by Couch et al. (1967), who observed that 10% guar meal did not affect egg weight. Residual guar gum is most likely not responsible for the adverse effect on total egg mass, because groups fed diets containing larger quantities of guar gum had comparable egg mass and feed efficiency relative to controls.
Although no overall differences were observed in yolk color aspects, significant main effects of guar by-product concentration on yolk luminosity and redness were detected on a per-week basis (data not shown). In half the observed data, hens fed 5% guar by-products had lower egg yolk luminosity than hens fed 2.5% guar by-products. This effect may be explained by the slightly decreased dietary corn content in the diet with 5% guar by-products. Additionally, after 8 wk of treatment (29-wk-old hens), egg yolks from hens fed diets containing guar meal consistently had lower redness values than hens fed guar germ fractions, which indicates that the factors responsible for egg yolk redness may be distributed differently in guar germ and meal. Whether the color change is visually perceivable by table-egg consumers is uncertain.
The shell quality, indicated by breaking force, shell thickness, and specific gravity, was not affected by the feeding of guar by-products. This confirmed observations from a previous study conducted in our laboratory indicating that feeding 5% guar meal did not affect shell quality (C. Zhang, A. L. Cartwright, and C. A. Bailey, unpublished data). Significant differences regarding egg components were detected only sparingly, with no discernible pattern.
The addition of guar by-products as a partial replacement for soybean meal in poultry diets may be a useful economic strategy for decreasing feed costs while maintaining production levels. The results of this study suggest that both guar germ and guar meal can be fed to high-production laying hens at levels up to 5% of the diet without unfavorable effects on egg production, feed consumption, eggshell quality, and solid egg components. However, feed conversion, egg weight, and total egg mass were observed to decrease relative to feeding traditional laying hen diets.
Received for publication October 16, 2006. Accepted for publication February 4, 2007.
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