Implementation of net energy evaluating system in laying hens: Validation by performance and egg quality

Three experiments were conducted to determine the effect of different dietary net energy (NE) and AMEn ratios (NE:AMEn) on performance, egg quality, and heat production (HP) in laying hens. In experiment 1, 62 Hy-Line Brown hens were fed 2 treatments with 31 replicates from 44 to 54 wk of age. In experiment 2, 600 hens of the same strain were fed 3 treatments from 22 to 42 wk of age with 10 replicates. Both used a completely randomized design. Diets were based on corn, wheat, wheat bran, barley, soybean meal, canola meal, meat and bone meal, and canola oil. In both experiments, the NE:AMEn ratio of diets was increased with higher oil inclusion compared with T1 controls. The AMEn (kcal/kg), NE (kcal/kg), ether extract (g/kg), and CP (g/kg), respectively, on a DM basis in experiment 1 was T1: 3,011, 2,288, 42, 202 and T2: 3,023, 2,374, 81, 203; and in experiment 2, T1: 3,026, 2,324, 25, 187; T2: 2,949, 2,315, 61, 185; and T3: 3,026, 2,397, 73, 181. Increasing the ratio of NE:AMEn decreased feed intake (P < 0.001) and increased egg mass (P < 0.05) in experiment 2 and increased egg weight (P < 0.01), decreased feed conversion ratio (P < 0.01), increased egg albumen % (P < 0.001), and decreased yolk % (P < 0.05) and shell % (P < 0.05) compared with T1 controls in both experiments. Haugh units and yolk color scores were increased with high NE:AMEn in both experiments (P < 0.001; P < 0.01). Experiment 3 was conducted in calorimetry chambers to measure HP in birds fed experiment 2 diets. Increasing the NE:AMEn increased total retained energy (RE), RE as fat, and RE in the body (kcal/kg BW^0.75/D) and NE:AME. The results indicate that using oil to increase the NE:AMEn results in improved performance and egg quality and more efficient energy utilization.