Objective: The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of dietary β-mannanase on productive performance, egg quality, and utilization of dietary energy and nutrients in aged laying hens raised under hot climatic conditions.
Methods: A total of 320 84-wk-old Hy-line Brown aged laying hens were allotted to one of four treatments with eight replicates in a completely randomized design. Two dietary treatments with high energy (HE; 2,800 kcal/kg nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolizable energy [AMEn]) and low energy (LE; 2,700 kcal/kg AMEn) were formulated. Two additional diets were prepared by adding 0.04% (MN4) or 0.08% β-mannanase (MN8) to LE treatment diets. The feeding trial was conducted for 28 d, covering a period from July to August in South Korea. The average daily room temperature and relative humidity were 29.2°C and 83%, respectively.
Results: Productive performance, egg quality, and cloacal temperature were not influenced by dietary treatments. The measured AMEn values for MN8 diets were similar to those for HE diets, which were greater (p<0.05) than those for LE and MN4 diets. However, the AMEn values for MN8 diets did not differ from those for LE and MN4 diets.
Conclusion: The addition of β-mannanase to low energy diets increases energy values for diets fed to aged laying hens. However, this increase has little positive impacts on performance and egg quality. These results indicate that dietary β-mannanase does not mitigate the heat stress of aged laying hens raised under hot climatic conditions.
Keywords: Aged Laying Hen; Egg Quality; Hot Climatic Condition; Performance; β-Mannanase.