Effect of Sodium Butyrate Supplementation on Performance, Egg Quality and Bacterial load in the Excreta of Laying Hens

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of sodium butyrate supplementation on egg production performance, egg quality, nutrient retention, excreta microflora and blood metabolites in laying hens during late laying cycle. A total of 320 Hy-Line Brown layers (65 wk old) were randomly allotted to 4 treatments on the basis of laying performance. Each treatment had 8 replicates with 10 birds each (80 birds per treatment). Two hens were confined individually with the cage size as 0.2 x 0.2 m. and 10 birds (5 cages) shared a common feed trough between them forming one experimental unit. Dietary treatments were basal diet supplemented with 0 (control), 0.05, 0.10, and 0.20% sodium butyrate. Supplementation of increasing levels of sodium butyrate showed linear reduction (P<0.05) in broken egg percentage. Egg shell strength was linearly improved (P<0.05) with increase in dietary sodium butyrate. Dietary supplementation of increasing levels of sodium butyrate had greater (linear, P<0.05) retention of DM, CP and GE. Hens fed diet supplemented with increasing levels of sodium butyrate had increased (linear, P<0.05) total anaerobic bacteria and Lactobacillus spp. population. However, dietary supplementation of sodium butyrate had no effect (P>0.05) on feed intake, egg production, egg weight, egg mass, egg shell thickness, yolk color and serum metabolites. These results indicates that dietary supplementation of sodium butyrate had beneficial effects on egg shell strength, nutrient retention and fecal microflora and can be used as feed additive for laying hen during late laying cycle.