It is well known that free range layer chickens’ welfare has been improved. However, the free-range system also provides harsher environments for layer hens to expose to parasites and bacterial challenges. Simultaneously, antibiotics removal trends in layer production require more and more antibiotics alternatives available.
The glucose oxidase (GOD) is exogenously produced by specific fungi fermentation to oxidize β-D-Glucose into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide, consuming large amounts of oxygen at the same time in the chicken gut. Therefore, it can protect against oxidative stress and directly kill some pathogenic bacteria or Eimeria parasites. GOD also plays an important role in colour development, flavour, texture, and increasing the shelf life of food products. Due to its characteristics of producing natural acid, deoxygenation and sterilization, GOD has been widely used in animal production.
Recently, Muniyappan et al., (2022) reported an experiment to investigate the graded levels of GOD on egg production and egg quality. On the base of a standard corn-soybean meal diets, 100, 200, and 300 ppm GOD were added to include a total of 4 treatments. The effect of GOD on egg production and egg quality was listed in Table 1. It is clearly shown that adding 300 ppm GOD increased egg production by 2.2% and significantly reduced broken eggs due properly to increased eggshell quality.
On the base of a standard corn-soybean meal control diet containing probiotics, VTR added 1000 unit /kg GOD plus half dosage of probiotics (GOD 1) and 2000 unit/kg GOD (GOD 2) to include 3 treatments for laying hens. The effect of GOD on laying production rate of 4 weeks was shown in Figure 1. The addition of 2000 unit/kg GOD achieved best results.
