Effect of dietary adipic acid and corn dried distillers grains with solubles on laying hen performance and nitrogen loss from stored excreta with or without sodium bisulfate
2012
Romero, C. | Abdallh, M. E. | Powers, W. | Angel, R. | Applegate, T. J.
Effects of dietary adipic acid (0 vs. 1%) and corn dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS; 0 vs. 20%) were evaluated on hen performance and egg characteristics from 26 to 34 wk of age. Four isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets were randomly assigned to blocks of 6 consecutive cages (36 cages per diet; 2 hens per cage). On wk 2 and 7 of the experiment, excreta were collected by cage block, mixed, and equally split into 2 containers. Sodium bisulfate (SBS) was spread (8.8 kg/100 m2) on the top surface of half of the containers. All containers were stored uncovered for 14 d at room temperature. Excreta pH, DM, and N content were measured on d 0, 7, and 14 of storage. Feed intake (112 g/d per hen), egg production (96.1%), and egg specific gravity (1.079 g/g) were not affected by diet. On excreta collection day, a synergy (P = 0.014) between dietary adipic acid and DDGS was detected, as the lowest excreta pH was obtained with the diet including both adipic acid and DDGS. On d 7 of storage, excreta pH was still reduced by dietary adipic acid (P = 0.046) and DDGS (P < 0.001), but a week later, only dietary DDGS decreased excreta pH (8.91 vs. 9.21; P < 0.001). Whereas dietary adipic acid had no influence on excreta N loss, excreta from hens fed 20% DDGS lost 19.7% more N (P = 0.039) during storage than hens not eating DDGS. Surface amendment of excreta with SBS increased excreta DM content, with the effect being even more marked on d 14 of storage (increase of 6.7 percentage units; P < 0.001), consistently decreased excreta pH during storage (P < 0.001) and reduced N loss by 26.1% for the 14 d of storage period.
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