earticle

영어

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of natural fermented phytogenics on fecal odour and performance in laying hens. The natural fermented phytogenics (NFP) was prepared by the fermentation of probiotics with a mixed herb of ginkgo leaf, mandarin peel, wormwood, ginger, licorice and tangleweed (30:7:10:3:5:15), and fermented by Bacillus subtilis, Lactobacillus acidophillus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae for 4 days at room temperature. To evaluate the efficacy of fecal odour reduction by NFP, the experiment was carried out on layer's dropping by in vitro fermentation with a mix of feces and distilled water (6:2), and NH3 and H2S gas production during the fermentation was measured. The productions of NH3 and H2S gas were significantly lower in NFP treatment group than those of control during the in vitro fermentation (p<0.05). To measure the effects of NFP on laying performance, the experiment was carried out with a total of sixty, 46-wk-old Lohmann brown layers for 4 weeks after the pre-experiment periods of two weeks. They were randomly divided into 2 groups with 3 replicates of 10 birds each. The treatments were control group which fed basal diet, and NFP group which fed basal diet added with 0.1% NFP. Hen-day egg production of NFP group was significantly increased compared to control (p<0.05). Also, soft & broken egg production was apparently reduced by NFP addition (p<0.05). Egg weight was not different between two groups but trended to be higher in NFP group than the control. Eggshell thickness, eggshell strength, eggshell color, yolk color and Haugh unit were not different between NFP group and control group. Overall, the above results showed that natural fermented phytogenics, prepared by fermented functional herbs with probiotics, have ability for reducing fecal order and improving egg production in laying hens.