Advanced Practical Strategies to Enhance Table Egg Production

Table 1

Practical breeding, husbandry, and nutritional strategies to improve layer egg production and quality.

The strategy	Studied traits	Species	Main results	Reference
Marker-assisted breeding selection	Egg production candidate genes	Laying chickens	Promising genes and SNP markers could be used to improve egg production and quality using marker-assisted breeding selection.	[19–21]
Transgenic technology	Egg products, human immunity	Laying chickens	Possibility of using novel biotechnology techniques to genetically modify hens to produce eggs with medical benefits such as insulin and antibodies.	[8, 22, 23]
			In addition, using eggs as a source of immunogens that enhance the immune system of humans.
Housing system enrichment	Birds’ behavior and welfare	Laying chickens	Using enriched cages, such as providing additional feeders, and free-range housing systems can improve laying hen behavior and welfare.	[24–26]
	Egg production and quality		Hens reared in enriched cages showed higher production performance and egg quality than those reared in the conventional cages and aviary system.	[27]
Environmental-enriched cages	Birds’ behavioral activities and density	Laying chickens	Environmental enriched cages encourage the daily activities of birds and provide more opportunities for better space utilization. Sufficient space in cages and aviaries is preferable for birds to express natural behaviors, such as perching, nesting, dust bathing, and walking.	[28–30]
Egg enrichment	Egg production and quality	Laying chickens	Feeding laying hens high PUFA with a lower linoleic acid to α-linolenic acid ratio in the diet can result in PUFA-enriched eggs.	[31]
			Adding a mixture of 25% marigold flower meal (Tagetes erectus) and 75% spinach (Spinacia oleracea) improved egg yolk color.	[32]
			Egg lycopene enrichment can be performed by supplementing feed with tomato powder (5–10 g/kg diet). This supplementation increased egg production and improved egg yolk color.	[33]
Dietary supplementation	Egg production and quality	Breeder hens	Supplementing the diet with quercetin and vitamin E increased the laying rate (84.5%), enhanced immunity response (IgM and IgA concentrations), and improved the yolk weight, yolk height, and Haugh unit in the aging breeder hens compared with those fed a basal diet.	[34]
		Laying chickens	Dry thyme leaves (2%) and thyme extracts are advised to be adding in laying farms to improve laying hens’ physiological and productive performance, as well as egg quality by increasing n-3 FA concentrations and decreasing bad yolk cholesterol.	[35, 36]
	Egg quality and fecal microbiota	Laying chickens	Supplementing extruded flaxseed meal (up to 20%) in laying hen diets increased α-linolenic acid and docosahexaenoic acid deposition in egg yolk. Increasing α-linolenic acid positively influenced egg quality and fecal microbiota.	[37, 38]
	Egg weight and quality	Laying Japanese quails	Oral administration of 100 to 150 μl/kg body weight of ginger essential oil to laying quails increases egg weight and lowers egg cholesterol.	[39]