Effects of betaine supplementation on reproductive performance of breeding geese

ABSTRACT

1. An experiment feeding three concentrations of betaine was conducted using breeding geese to analyse the reproductive performance, serum biochemical indexes, egg quality and intestinal immunity.

2. A total of 450 female and 90 male Jiangnan White breeding geese were divided into three treatments, with five pen replicates each containing 30 female geese and 6 male geese.

3. The results showed that there was no significant effect on the reproductive performance, serum biochemical indexes or jejunal villi goblet cells of geese with different levels of betaine in the diet (P > 0.05). Compared with the control group, the addition of 2.5 g/kg betaine to the diet showed a tendency to increase egg mass (P > 0.05) the betaine content in the yolk (P < 0.05). Feeding betaine significantly increased the height of jejunal villi and egg yolk total cholesterol content in female geese (P < 0.05).

4. In conclusion, adding betaine to the goose diet was effective in its ability to improve intestinal structures. Adding 2.5 g/kg betaine to feed significantly increased the content of TCHOL and betaine in goose eggs.

KEYWORDS:

• Betaine
• breeding geese
• reproductive performance
• egg quality
• intestinal immunity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by China Agriculture Research System (CARS-42-11), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [Grant No. BK20190897], the Jiangsu Agriculture Industry Technology System [JATS[2022]496], National Natural Science Foundation of China (32202680) and the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province [SJCX21_1628].