Extreme Conditions Including Enteritis Cost Up to 18 Eggs Per Hen

The world's leading egg producers rely on clean feed to maximize the genetic potential of layer flocks. The biggest amongst them trust Anitox to standardize the microbial quality of their feed, and protect flocks against the treatment of safety and performance-limiting pathogens.

For the layer operations we support across the US, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the implications of enteritis can be huge. As well as animal-welfare issues, outbreaks of enteritis within their layer populations impact in two key ways: reducing flock uniformity prior to point-of-lay and decreasing productivity post-18 weeks of age.

They accept that bringing birds into lay without optimum body weight limits lifetime performance. Flocks cannot be managed by exceptions; the average condition of the birds will dictate the flock management as a whole. The more their birds deviate from the average, the less able they are to meet requirements for optimal production.

Our results clearly show that flocks with good uniformity are easier to manage, as most of the birds are at the same physiological stage. And it's evidenced in the return on investment they get from clean feed. For example, bodyweight at sexual maturity impacts egg weight and the egg mass produced by layers.

Enteritis has a direct economic impact on poultry producers; a mild impact in some cases, a much larger impact in extreme cases. Generally we see an accumulation of benefits that leads to a material improvement in performance. For example, reduction in nutrient utilization by an inflamed intestine can lead to an increase in feed conversion that will be difficult to detect by most producers. But over time, the results are clear.

Severe enteritis such as focal duodenal necrosis, on the other hand, can reduce production by up to 10% below the standards for a genetic line. As well as impacting egg numbers, egg weight is also affected by up to 2.5g per egg. Don't take our word for it... Hy-Line has reported on the topic in its technical updates since 2013.

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