The effect of carnitine on hatching rate and metabolic profile of blood in breeding layers
Thiemel, J.(Hospodarske Druzstvo, Hlucin (Czech Republic))E-mail:[email protected] | Jelinek, P.(Mendelova Zemedelska a Lesnicka Univ., Brno (Czech Republic))
We examined the effect of orally administered L-carnitine (at a dose of 30 mg per kg of feeding mixture) on egg hatching and some haematological and biochemical parameters of blood plasma in COBB 500 breeding hens of meat type. L-carnitine supplementation significantly increased the hatching rate by 8.89%. This positive effect resulted from a decrease (P less than 0.01) in the number of unfertilized eggs (4.44% vs. 12.2%). Haematological tests such as total counts of erythrocytes and leukocytes showed no differences between control and experimental animals. However, the average levels of haematocrit and haemoglobin were lower (P less than 0.01) in experimental hens (0.31 L/L and 85.67 g/L, respectively) than in control ones (0.33 L/L and 89.92 g/L, respectively). L-carnitine supplementation led to the increase of glucose and Mg concentrations and to the decrease of total protein, cholesterol, AST, Ca and P concentrations in blood plasma. These changes were highly significant. Our results may contribute to formulate new diets with L-carnitine supplementation in order to enhance the reproductive performance of breeding hens.
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