Fuelled by increasing egg consumption, global egg production is gaining popularity and importance. Poultry producers face several production challenges to fulfil consumer demands. The most urgent challenges are related to eggshell quality and hen life span.

Maintaining normal physiology and good health of the laying hen is essential to produce high-quality eggs for longer periods of time. Dietary interventions like the feeding of fermented feeds, fiber, probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics are acceptable means for influencing the gut microbiota and its metabolic activity. In laying hens, inclusion of postbiotics in the diet to maintain/improve productivity and egg quality has been researched and has led to the development and commercialization of a new feed additive, AO-Biotics® EQE (Egg Quality Enhancer).

AO-Biotics EQE is a fungal postbiotic produced using patent pending technology and specifically indicated to improve the number of sellable eggs, egg mass and productive lifespan of laying hens. De Juan et. al. (2021 and 2022) studied the effects of AO-Biotics EQE on the performance and egg quality traits of hens from 15 to 43 and 18 to 65 weeks of age, respectively. The results, along with numerous field trials, demonstrated the addition of AO-Biotics EQE increased sellable eggs by 3%, egg mass by 2%, egg production by 3% and decreased mortality by around 25%, on average.

Generally, the more eggs a layer operation can produce, the greater the profit potential. Factors like feed quality, housing environments and flock health can impact egg production, egg size and egg quality, which can, in return, impact revenue and profitability. To maximize profitability, egg producers must strive to optimize the productivity of their hens, increase the survivability rate, and maintain or improve the eggshell quality, helping the animals produce more sellable eggs.

To achieve this, producers need to apply a high-quality management system, which might include the incorporation of a well proven postbiotics such as AO-Biotics EQE. Let’s show a practical scenario of how AO-Biotics EQE may positively influence flock productivity and profitability using the following parameters:

• 600,000 hens entered the production barns at 18 weeks of age
• Production cycle up to 100 weeks of age
• Cumulative mortality of 6%
• Average daily feed intake of 115g of feed/d
• Average egg production of 88%
• An expectation of 450 eggs/hen at 100 weeks of age with an average egg weight of 62g

Given these parameters, 36,000 hens will leave the production. The first advantage of AO-Biotics EQE is an improvement in the liveability of the flock, reducing the cumulative mortality on average by 25%. The cumulative mortality would drop to 4.5% (9,000 hens more in the operation producing eggs for a longer time).

The second advantage is more egg mass, together with an improvement in the persistence of egg production over time. Improving the productivity and the productive life span of the flock will be reflected in an improvement in the number of sellable eggs (3% more). In this case, the improvement in sellable eggs will mean 14 more eggs per hen in production.

Considering this improvement in combination with the savings due to the increased productive lifespan of layers, the producers can expect an ROI of more than 6:1.

Visit Biozymeinc.com/additive/eqe/ to learn more about incorporating AO-Biotics EQE into your operation.