Effects Of Feeding Density On Small Intestine Tissue Structure And Cecal Microbial Population In Caged Layers

To research the effect of stocking density on the intestinal health of laying hens,this research were conducted by comparing the modality of small intestinal mucosastructure and the microbial flora of cecum of laying hens treated with different stockingdensity.115011-week-old Hy-line Gray laying hens were randomly allocated into5groups with50replications with the stocking density of900cm2,675cm2,540cm2,450cm2and380cm2per layer respectively. All the hens were reared under the sameenvironment condition and with the same management model.5hens were selectedrandomly from every group at the age of16weeks,26weeks and50weeksrespectively, the intestinal samples of duodenum, jejunum and ileum were taken tomeasure the height of villus and the depth of crypt, and to calculate the ratio of thevillus and the crypt; the contents of cecum were taken to analyze the micro byPCR-DGGE.The results showed that the ratio of the villus and the crypt of the hens werehigher at the age of26weeks in duodenum, jejunum and ileum, the ratio of the villusand the crypt were higher whose stocking density were675cm2per layer induodenum and jejunum, the ratio of the villus and the crypt were higher whosestocking density were675cm2and450cm2per layer in ileum. Both the age of weeksand the stocking density influenced the microbial flora of cecum a lot. There were lessdiverse of the microbial flora of cecum at the age of26weeks and larger differencesat age of50week. The microbial flora of cecum mainly included Bacteroidetes,Firmicutes, Tenericutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria.To sum up, both the age of weeks and the stocking density influenced themicrobial flora of cecum a lot, and the stocking density of675cm2per layer waspropitious to the growth and development of intestinum tenue.