Effect of herbal powder supplementations in feed on egg performances and intestinal microflora of small size local hens in the south of Vietnam

Le Thanh Phuong and Nguyen Thi Thuy¹

Vietswan Poultry Production Joint Stock Company
nthithuycn@ctu.edu.vn
¹ College of Agriculture, CanTho University, Campus II, 3/2 Street, NinhKieu District, CanTho City, Viet Nam

Abstract

A study was carried out to determine the effect of turmeric (Curcuma longa), ginger (Zingiber officinale), and garlic (Allium sativum) powder supplementations in feed on egg quality traits and intestinal microflora of small size local hens from 22-32 weeks age. A total of 180 Ac local hens at the 21 weeks of age were randomly distributed in a completely randomized design experiment, with 4 treatments and 15 replicates, each replicate consisted of a pen with 3 birds/pen. The experimental data was collected during 10 weeks. Treatments used: (1) Control (Cont): Basal diet (B) without any supplement in feed; (2) TUP: B + turmeric powder; (3) GIP: B+ ginger powder; (4) GAP: B + garlic powder, all supplemented at 0.5% in the diets.

The results showed that, average daily feed intake was not effect by turmeric, garlic and ginger supplementation in the diets (P>0.05).But, there was a little improvement hen day production (P<0.05) in turmeric and ginger groups compared to garlic and control groups. And there was higher egg weight of hens supplemented turmeric and garlic than that of hens in ginger and control groups (P<0.05). However, there was no significant effect of treatments on egg quality parameters, but there was a higher yellow color of egg yolk in turmeric and ginger compared to that in garlic and control groups. Supplementation of turmeric, ginger and garlic reduced Salmonella.spp; E. coli and Clostridium perfringens in the feces of Ac hens. In conclusion, turmeric and ginger powders supplemented in the diet at 0.5% improved the egg production and yellow color of egg yolk of Ac hens to compare with that of garlic and control groups. However, the highest egg weight was found in garlic treatment. And supplementation of turmeric, ginger and garlic reduced Salmonella.spp; E. coli and Clostridium perfringens in the feces of Ac hens.

Keywords: Ac hen, garlic powder, ginger powder, hen day production, intestinal microflora, turmeric powder

Introduction

Poultry production has an important role in Vietnam agriculture, accounting for 512.6 million heads of total poultry production in the country, in which chicken production occupy 409.5 million heads in early of year 2021, and increase around 7% compared with that in year 2020 (GSO 2021). Besides the development of raising industrial chicken breeds in large farms, there is a strong development of local chicken breed such as Ac and Noi chickens rising in large and also in small farms. Because meat and egg of local chicken breeds are always having higher priority for consumers beside commercial breed productions. Ac chickens are a local black-bone chicken breed that originated in the Mekong delta, the body is covered with white feathers, but the skin, meat and bones are black. They are quiet low growth and egg production breed and have small body size with mature weight of 0.9 kg, but their meat and eggs have outstanding flavor. Ac hens have earlier age at first lay (15-16 weeks age), then slowly reach the peak at 25 to 40 weeks and quickly decline in egg rate after 50 weeks of age as compared with the other commercial breeds (Van Phuoc et al 2019).

Recently, Ac hens are raising in high number in both small and simi- large scall farmers. In the small scale, the farmers are usually supplemented antibiotics in the chicken diet to prevent and treat disease of chickens. But, from the year 2018, the using of antibiotics has been banned to supplement in animal feed as a growth stimulant, and not be used to prevent animal diseases from 2020 (Department of Livestock Production 2017). This situation has been pressing the farmers to find other supplements in order to improve the chicken health. Thus, there is a need to find and develop safer alternative sources to antibiotics for livestock and chickens in particular.

There are many kinds of herbal powders, which are not popularly using in chicken diets. Turmeric, garlic, ginger roots are locally growing and using for human feed additive. There are many studies done on using of herbal extracts as natural antioxidants, growth promoters and for disease prevention (Abou-Elkhair 2014).

But these herbal powders are researching and have not using as replacing antibiotic. So, this study was conducted to evaluation the effect of some herbal powders supplementation in the feed on egg production, quality parameters and bacterial population in the feces of local hens during the increasing egg stage of laying.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of garlic, turmeric or ginger powders supplementation in the feed as feed additive on egg performances, feed conversion and egg quality, bacterial population of Ac laying hens during 10 weeks of laying.

Materials and methods

Animals and experimental design

The experiment was conducted in an Experimental laying farm in Ô Môn district, Can Tho city in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam from November 2019 to February, 2020. A total of 180 Ac laying hens were housed in cages (pen), the hens were 21 weeks age, lasted at 32 weeks age. Each treatment was randomly allotted to 15 cages with 3 hens per cage in an open-side house. Water was supplied ad-libitum in individual drinkers. Feed was supplied twice a day, 30% was fed at 8am and another 70% was given at 2pm. The experiment was arranged as a completely randomized design of four treatments with 15 replicates (cage) of 3 hens in each (3 hens/cage), the trial lasted for 10 weeks.

Experimental treatments and feed

Feed formulation and composition are showed in Table 1, the basal diet was formulated following local laying hen requirement with amount of metabolizable energy (11.4 MJ/kg) and crude protein (17.5 %) content. Feed ingredients in basal diet included: Maize, broken rice, rice bran, fish meal, soya bean meal, premix vitamins and limestone at low level. The basal diet was supplemented with turmeric (TUP), ginger (GIP) or garlic (GAP) powders at 0.5% in the diet. Chemical composition of turmeric, ginger and garlic powders are showed in table 2. Turmeric, ginger and garlic powders were prepared one before starting the experiment. These roots were cleaned and cut into smaller pieces and dried sufficiently in the sunlight to remove moisture content. After drying, required amount of turmeric, ginger and garlic were prepared by fine grinding to make powder form. Then these were mixed into the feeds every 5 days and fed continuously for 10 weeks.

Treatments were:

1/ Cont: Basal diet (B) without any herbal powder supplement

2/ TUP: B + 0.5% turmeric powder in the diet

3/ GIP: B + 0.5% ginger powder in the diet

4/ GAP: B + 0.5% garlic powder in the diet

Egg performance

During the experimental period, egg number was recorded daily to calculate egg production as a percentage of eggs produced per bird. Egg weight was determined by weighing all eggs produced per experimental unit by a digital balance to the nearest of 0.01 g accuracy. The average feed intake was recorded daily, egg mass and feed conversion ratios were calculated weekly. Egg mass was determined by calculating hen day production x egg weight. Feed conversion ratio was determined by calculating feed intake/egg mass.

Egg quality

At the 30^th week age, 240 eggs (60 from each treatment) were randomly collected for egg quality analysis. Egg shape index was determined by calculating (egg width / egg length) x 100 (Sandi et al 2013). After that, eggs were broken, egg contents were poured onto a horizontal glass. Albumin, yolk and shell were separated and weighed individually (Englmaierová et al 2014). Shell thickness was determined by calculating the mean of triplicate measurement from different sides of shell (Güçlü et al 2008). Haugh Unit was measured using formula HU=100 x log (H - 1.7 W ^0.37 + 7.57) (Saleh 2013).

Feces sampling

Fecal samples were collected at 30^th weeks of age, the levels of Lactobacillus, Salmonella. spp, E. coli and Clostridium perfringens in fecal samples were determined by the colony counting method. Fecal samples were directly collected at cloaca of 6-9 hens/treatment (about 70g feces/bag) and stored in cold storage. After that, homogenous fecal samples were transferred to the Biology Laboratory of Analysis Service Center in Can Tho city for counting the colony.

Statistical analysis

Collected data was analyzed by ANOVA using the General Liner Model (GLM) of Minitab Statistical Software Version 16. Tukey pair-wise comparisons were used to determine differences between treatment means at P<0.05. The statistical model used is as follows: Y_ij = µ + α_i + e_ij

Where Y_ij is egg performances or egg quality; µ is overall mean averaged over all treatments; α_i is effect of treatment; e_ij is random error associated with treatment and replicate within treatment.

Chemical analysis

The chemical composition of basal feed was determined following Association of Official Analytical Chemists methods (AOAC 1990). York color was recorded using a colorimeter (Chromameter Minolta, CR-400 Head, DP-400/ Japan), which indicated degrees of lightness of a york sample (L), red-ness (a) and yellow-ness (b). Bacteria density in feces were tested at the Biology Laboratory according to specific methods: E. coli (Quantitative) was analyzed according to ISO-16649-2- 2001;Clostridium perfringens (Quantitative) by ISO 7937: 2004;Salmonella.spp (Qualitative) by ISO-6579-1: 2017; and Lactobacillus (Quantitative) by TCVN 8737: 2011.

Results and discussion

Egg performance and feed conversion

Hen day production, egg weight and feed conversion during the period between 22 and 32 weeks of age is presented in Table 3 and shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, respectively. The hen day production of all treatments increased with increasing hen age from 22 to 26 weeks age and stable until 32 weeks age. However, there were improvements in egg production with turmeric and ginger powders supplementation in the diets to compare with that from garlic and control groups. This is in agreement with the report of Van Phuoc et al (2019) and Park et al (2012) who found that supplementation of turmeric at 0.1 to 0.5% in the diet improved egg production. Research of Moeini et al (2011); and Malekizadeh et al (2012) showed that egg production of hens increased when turmeric or ginger were supplemented at level 1-3% in the diets.

But, in the present study, there was no improvement in egg performance of the garlic supplemented group. Asrat et al 2018 also reported similar results in laying hens supplemented hens with 1-3% garlic powder in the diets. And Abdulaziz and Aqil (2016) showed adding garlic powder improve egg mass, but decrease egg production when supplement 0.8 and 1% in diet.

Figure 1. Hen day production (%) of hens from 22 to 32 weeks age	Figure 2. Egg weight (g/egg) of hens from 22 to 32 weeks age

These results may be because addition of ginger may cause an improvement in digestive tract performance in laying hens and improve the egg production, and stimulating effect on gastric juice, bile, pancreatic and intestinal juices (Malekizadeh et al 2012). In addition, dietary supplementations of ginger powder leads to an increase in diet fiber content and subsequently decreases the feed energy concentration (Omage et al 2007), also it might be due to the active components present in the ginger which stimulates digestive enzymes and improves overall digestion, the positive effect on gastric secretion, and digestive enzyme activities in ginger such as two types of digestive enzymes protease and lipase (Kafi et al 2017), and thus leads to increased egg production. Similarly, turmeric powder has a beneficial effect on the stomach due to increasing mucin secretion and might act as a gastroprotectant against irritants, and because of the anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative effects of curcumin (Chattopadhyay et al 2004).

Egg quality parameters

However, addition of turmeric, ginger or garlic did not influence feed intake, egg mass and feed conversion and some egg quality parameters (shape index, Haugh unit, and egg components, egg shell thickness, yolk and albumen index), but there was difference in egg weight and yolk color between the treatments. Addition of garlic and turmeric powders improved egg weight to compare with that from ginger supplementation and control, and the yellowness index of yolk color tended to be higher in turmeric and ginger supplementations. The results are in agreement with Yalcin et al (2006) who showed that supplementing garlic powder at level of 0.5 to 1% in diet showed numerical increase in egg weight. Similarly, Mousa et al (2019) reported that garlic supplementation probably enhanced the activities of the pancreatic enzymes and provided micro-environment for better nutrient utilization, so it partially explains the improve egg weight due to garlic administration compared to the controlled-fed group of hens. These above benefit could be attributed to the fact that herbal plant may provide some compounds that enhance digestion, then increase egg weight.

Beside, turmeric powder is a bioactive compound of curcumin and rich in fiber, iron, potassium, magnesium and vitamin B6, it has been used in coloring or medicine in products. The main component of the turmeric is a volatile oil, containing turmerone, and there are other coloring agents called curcuminoids in turmeric (Shiyou Li et al 2011).

This present study found that turmeric and ginger supplementations influence egg yolk color that is an important feature highly preferred by consumers. This finding is in agreement with those of Park et al (2012) reported that yolk color in eggs from hens fed 0.5% turmeric powder increased in comparison with the control. This result could be a promising alternative material for improving the egg yolk color, which often be adding synthetic pigments to the feed by farmers.

Intestinal microflora

Lactobacillus and Salmonella.spp were almost undetectable in chicken feces at 30^th weeks age (Table 5). However, E. coli and Clostridium perfringens are quite high in chicken feces. Among these bacteria, Lactobacillus is beneficial bacteria but Salmonella.spp, E. coli and Clostridium Perfringens are potentially pathogenic bacteria.

Supplementation with garlic, ginger or turmeric at 0.5% in the diet reduced E. coli and Clostridium in the gastrointestinal tract of the hens. Garlic have most effect on decrease of total E. coli (P<0.05) in comparison to the others. Research from Olobatoke and Mulugeta (2011) found that garlic have the major phytogenic compound called allicin, this compound is derived from naturally occurring amino acid allin which is transformed into allicin by the enzyme allinase, and can improve chicken health, and these natural additives has prevented the development of harmful microorganisms in the intestines.

In addition, Ali et al (2008) showed that ginger in the diets stimulate lactic acid bacteria and decreases pathogenic bacteria such as coliform and E. coli. Panpatil et al (2013) showed that the spices like ginger, garlic and turmeric have antimicrobial and antioxidant activity, the biological effects of antioxidant-rich herbs and spices on oxidative stress related diseases.

Conclusions

• Turmeric and ginger powders supplemented in the diet at 0.5% improved the egg production and egg yolk color of Ac hens to compare with garlic and control groups. However, the highest egg weight was found in garlic treatment.
  
  
• Supplementation of turmeric, ginger and garlic reduced Salmonella spp, E. coli and Clostridium perfringens in the feces of Ac hens

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank to the manager of the Experimental farm for supplying all materials of the experiment. And also sincere gratitude thanks to Mr. Tri; Mr.Thach and Ms.Phuong for taking care the experiment.

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