Effect of Leuconostoc mesenteroides KCCM35046 fermented aged garlic extract on egg production, egg quality, odour gas emissions, targeted E. coli colony, haematological characteristics and fatty acids composition of egg yolk in laying hens

ABSTRACTThe design of this study was to investigate the impacts of dietary supplementation with aged garlic extract (AGE) by Leuconostoc mesenteroides KCCM35046 on egg production, egg quality, odour gas emissions from excreta, excreta microbiota, haematological characteristics and fatty acids composition of egg yolk in laying hens. A total of 384, 54-week (ISA-brown) laying hens were randomly assigned to one of four treatments with eight replications per treatment and 12 adjacent cages as a replication. The experimental treatments were: (1) CON; basal diet, (2) AGE.05; CON + .05% aged garlic extract, (3) AGE.1; CON + .1% aged garlic extract, (4) AGE.2; CON + .2% aged garlic extract. No significant differences were observed in feed intake (FI) and egg production among treatments (P > .05). Laying hens fed with the AGE linearly improved yolk height at Week 3 (P = .02). The inclusion of .1% AGE had increased Haughunit (HU) at Week 4 (quadratic, P = .01). At the end of the experiment, AGE diet linearly increa...