Table 4.
Effect of dietary concentrations of ME and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) on egg quality of aged laying hens.1
| Egg quality |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | Eggshell color2 | Egg yolk color | Haugh unit | Eggshell strength (kg/cm2) | Eggshell thickness (μm) | |
| ME3 | NDF4 | |||||
| Low | Low | 11.7 | 7.6a | 83.1 | 3.34 | 393b |
| High | 11.3 | 8.3c | 84.0 | 3.45 | 390b | |
| Normal | Low | 11.8 | 7.9b | 82.0 | 3.44 | 393b |
| High | 11.6 | 8.8d | 83.1 | 3.53 | 401a | |
| SEM (n = 8) | 0.11 | 0.08 | 0.79 | 0.051 | 2.3 | |
| Main effect | ||||||
| ME | ||||||
| Low | 11.5 | 8.0 | 83.5 | 3.39 | 391 | |
| Normal | 11.7 | 8.3 | 82.6 | 3.48 | 397 | |
| SEM (n = 16) | 0.08 | 0.06 | 0.50 | 0.036 | 1.6 | |
| NDF | ||||||
| Low | 11.8 | 7.8 | 82.5 | 3.39 | 393 | |
| High | 11.5 | 8.5 | 83.5 | 3.49 | 396 | |
| SEM (n = 16) | 0.08 | 0.05 | 0.60 | 0.036 | 1.6 | |
| Effect (P-value) | ||||||
| ME | 0.125 | <0.001 | 0.112 | 0.075 | 0.018 | |
| NDF | 0.334 | <0.001 | 0.247 | 0.063 | 0.209 | |
| ME × NDF | 0.513 | 0.045 | 0.898 | 0.804 | 0.021 | |
a-d
Means in the same column with different superscripts are different (P < 0.05).
1
Data are least squares means of 8 observations per treatment.
2
Eggshell color was measured by the eggshell color fan scale.
3
Normal-ME diets contained commercially recommended levels of ME (2,730 kcal AMEn/kg); low-ME diets contained less ME by 50 kcal ME/kg (2,680 kcal AMEn/kg).
4
High-NDF diets contained 40% higher NDF concentrations than low-NDF diets.