Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (3): 1085-1094.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2024.03.021

• ANIMAL NUTRITION AND FEEDS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Betaine on Performance, Egg Quality and Antioxidant Capacity of Late-phase Laying Hens

PIAN Huifang1, DU Xubin1,2, LI Yan1, ZHANG Yuchen1, HE Hui3, YU Debing1*   

  1. 1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China;
    2. College of Animal Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China;
    3. Taixing Pengyuan Breeding Co. Ltd., Taizhou 225400, China
  • Received:2023-06-28 Online:2024-03-23 Published:2024-03-27

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Abstract: The study was conducted to determine the effects of betaine on the performance and antioxidant function of late-phase laying hens. A total of 108 Hy-Line variety Brown laying hens with 500-day-old were selected and randomly divided into 3 groups, with 3 replicates in each group and 12 hens in each replicate. The birds in control group were fed with the basal diet, and the experimental groups were supplemented with 1 000 and 3 000 mg·kg-1 betaine on the basal diet respectively for 42 days. Samples of eggs, serum, ovary and granulosa cells of small yellow follicles at the end of the experiment were collected. The results showed that:1) Compared with the control group, betaine supplementation linearly increased the laying rate of layers, average egg weight (PL<0.01) and protein height, yolk color, yolk weight in the late laying period (PL<0.05). 2) Compared with the control group, the addition of betaine to the diet resulted in a significant linear increase in the level of Prog in serum (PL<0.01), and dietary betaine linearly and quadratic increased the level of FSH and LH in serum (PL<0.01; PQ<0.05). 3)The addition of betaine to the diet linearly increased the activity of SOD, GSH-Px in the serum, and the level of T-AOC,the activity of SOD, CAT, also linearly decreased the content of MDA in ovary(PL<0.05). At the same time, dietary betaine linearly and quadratic increased the level of T-AOC and the activity of CAT in serum, decreased the content of MDA (PL<0.01; PQ<0.01). The addition of betaine to the diet linearly increased the mRNA expression levels of SOD, HO-1 (PL<0.01),quadratic increased the mRNA expression level of Nrf2 (PQ<0.01), linearly and quadratic increased the mRNA expression level of NQO1 (PL<0.01; PQ<0.01) and significantly increased the mRNA expression level of CAT (P<0.05). Collectively, the addition of betaine to the diet can increase the level of hormone in serum and the activity of antioxidant enzymes in serum and ovary, improve its antioxidant capacity active by promoting the expression of antioxidant related genes in small yellow follicle granulosa cells and thereby improve the production performance of late-phase laying hens. Moreover, the addition effect of high doses is better than that of low doses.

Key words: betaine, late laying hens, granulosa cells of small yellow follicles, antioxidant performance

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