Effects Of The Essential Oil/Palygorskite Composite On Performance,Blood Indices And Intestinal Health Of Laying Hens

This experiment was aimed to investigate effects of dietary supplementation with the essential oil/palygorskite composite on performance,egg quality,blood indices and intestinal health in laying hens during late period.Four hundred and eighty Lohmann hens(65-week-old)were randomly allocated to 4 groups(6 replicates of 20 hens each).The laying hens were fed the dietary 0(control group),0.5,0.75 and 1.0 g/kg EO-PGS supplementation respectively for 56 days.The results showed as follows:1)Compared with the control group,the laying rate in 0.75 and 1.0 g/kg EO-PGS group was significantly increased(P<0.05);the yolk index in the experiment group and the shell thickness in 0.75 and 1.0 g/kg EO-PGS group was significantly increased on the fifty-sixth day of the experiment period(P<0.05);the MDA content of liver in experimental groups was significantly decreased(P<0.05),and the activities of plasma CAT,liver T-SOD and spleen GSH-PX in 1.0g/kg EO-PGS group significantly was increased(P<0.05).Moreover,the liver T-SOD in 0.75g/kg EO-PGS group was significantly increased(P<0.05);the relative content of IgG and IL-2 in 0.75 and 1.0 g/kg EO-PGS group significantly increased(P<0.05);the duodenum content of endotoxin have the tend to decrease(P=0.061);the V/C of ileum in0.75g/kg EO-PGS group significantly increased(P<0.05);The Beta diversity analysis showed that the cecum microflora structure distribution of laying hens in 0.75 and 1.0 g/kg EO-PGS groups was relatively scattered and had lower similarity compared with control group;Compared with control group,at the phylum level,the relative content of Tenericutes in the experimental group have the trend to increase(P=0.071),and the relative content of Elusimicrobia in 0.5 and 0.75 g/kg EO-PGS was significantly increased(P<0.05).At the genius level,the relative content of Elumicrobium in 0.5 and 0.75 g/kg EO-PGS groups were significantly increased(P<0.05);the relatively content of Eubacterium in 0.5 g/kg EO-PGS group was significantly increased(P<0.05);Compared with the control group,a significant increase in the total number of Bifidobacteria of experimental groups was observed in cecum(P<0.05),while a significant decrease in the total number of Salmonella was observed in cecum(P<0.05),and the relative content of E.coli in cecum in 0.5 and 1.0 g/kg EO-PGS groups were significantly decreased(P<0.05).Compared with control group,the content of Lactobacillus in cecum and duodenum in 0.5 g/kg EO-PGS group was significantly enhanced(P<0.05),and the relative content of Bifidobacteria in duodenum have the trend to increase(P=0.067).To sum up,dietary supplementation of 0.5～1.0 g/kg EO-PGS can improve the performance of laying hens,enhance antioxidant and immune function,improve the bacterial diversity and optimize intestinal microbiota structure to a certain extent.