Rosemary extract improves egg quality by altering gut barrier function, intestinal microbiota and oviductal gene expressions in late-phase laying hens

Table 2 Effects of rosemary extract on egg quality of laying hens¹

Item	CON	CTC	RE50	RE100	RE200	SEM	P-value
Yolk color	7.56	7.61	7.11	6.94	8.28	0.38	0.15
Albumen height, mm	4.37	4.49	4.21	4.51	4.75	0.22	0.53
Haugh unit	58.51^b	63.07^ab	61.87^ab	64.10^ab	66.32^a	1.69	0.04
Eggshell strength, kgf	3.84	3.66	3.75	3.88	3.84	0.15	0.84
Eggshell thickness, mm	0.31	0.33	0.32	0.31	0.32	0.01	0.32

CON Control, CTC 50 mg/kg chlortetracycline, RE50 50 mg/kg rosemary extract, RE100 100 mg/kg rosemary extract, RE200 200 mg/kg rosemary extract
¹Values are shown as mean ± SEM, n = 6
^a,bResults without a common superscript means significant difference at P < 0.05

ISSN: 2049-1891