Table 1.
Management, experimental procedures, and age as well as equivalent implant week of the laying hens of group “Adult” and “Juvenile” in each experimental week.
| Experimental week | Management | Experimental procedures | Group “Adult” (20 hens) |
Group “Juvenile” (20 hens) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week of age | Implant week | Week of age | Implant week | |||
| 1 | Arrival at experimental site | 21 | −3 | 14 | −1 | |
| 2 | B+E | 22 | −2 | 15 | 0 | |
| 3 | B+E | 23 | −1 | 16 | 1 | |
| 4 | Relocation | B+E+U | 24 | 0 | 17 | 2 |
| 5 | B+E+U | 25 | 1 | 18 | 3 | |
| 6 | B+E+U | 26 | 2 | 19 | 4 | |
| 7 | B+E+U+R | 27 | 3 | 20 | 5 | |
| 8 | B+E+U | 28 | 4 | 21 | 6 | |
| 9 | B+E+U | 29 | 5 | 22 | 7 | |
| 10 | B+E+U | 30 | 6 | 23 | 8 | |
| 11 | B+E+U | 31 | 7 | 24 | 9 | |
| 12 | B+E+U | 32 | 8 | 25 | 10 | |
| 13 | B+E+U+CM | 33 | 9 | 26 | 11 | |
| 14 | B+E+U+CM | 34 | 10 | 27 | 12 | |
| 15 | B+E+U+CM+R | 35 | 11 | 28 | 13 | |
| 16 | B+E+U+CM | 36 | 12 | 29 | 14 | |
| 17 | B+E+U+CM | 37 | 13 | 30 | 15 | |
| 18 | B+E+U+CM | 38 | 14 | 31 | 16 | |
| 19 | B+E+U+CM | 39 | 15 | 32 | 17 | |
| 20 | B+E+U+CM+D | 40 | 16 | 33 | 18 | |
B, blood withdrawal for analysis of estradiol-17ß concentrations; E, health examination; U, ultrasonography of ovaries; CM, comb size measurement; R, radiography of keel bones; D, dissection; implant week 0, administration of deslorelin acetate implant; from this time point on, there were 10 treated and 10 control hens per group.