Dietary cholecalciferol and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol supplementation interact to modulate reproductive performance, egg quality, serum antioxidant capacity, intestinal morphology and tibia quality of breeder geese

ABSTRACT

1. A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary cholecalciferol (vitamin D₃) and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25-OH-D₃) supplementation on the reproductive performance, egg quality, eggshell ultrastructure, serum hormone level and antioxidant capacity, intestinal morphology and tibia quality of breeder geese during the laying period.

2. The trial was designed as a 3 × 3 factorial arrangement with three levels (300, 400 and 500 IU/kg) of vitamin D₃ supplementation and three levels (25, 50 and 75 μg/kg) of 25-OH-D₃ supplementation in a 10-wk feeding trial.

3. The results showed that the combined supplementation of 400 IU/kg vitamin D₃ and 50 μg/kg 25-OH-D₃ had a better feed conversion ratio and a higher egg laying rate than the other groups. Vitamin D₃ supplementation significantly increased the rate of qualified eggs for hatching, eggshell strength and thickness, serum testosterone and progesterone levels, serum total superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activities, tibia ash content and bone mineral density (P < 0.05). Dietary 25-OH-D₃ supplementation significantly increased serum glutathione peroxidase activity and duodenal villus height and villus height-to-crypt-depth ratio (P < 0.05). The geese receiving 500 IU/kg vitamin D₃ and 75 µg/kg 25-OH-D₃ had the highest tibia calcium and phosphorous content among all groups (P < 0.05).

4. Feeding 400 IU/kg vitamin D₃ plus 50 µg/kg 25-OH-D₃ gave optimal effects on feed conversion ratio and egg laying rate. This combination could be a nutritional strategy for increasing the laying rate, eggshell quality, serum hormone levels and serum antioxidant function regardless of 25-OH-D₃ supplementation. Supplementation of 50 μg/kg 25-OH-D₃ could be a recommended dose for improving the serum antioxidant capacity and intestinal morphology regardless of vitamin D₃ supplementation.

KEYWORDS:

• Feed conversion ratio
• egg laying rate
• eggshell ultrastructure
• hormone level
• bone quality

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by China National Waterfowl Industry and Technology System [CARS-42-14], Agriculture and Animal Husbandry High-tech Industry Research and Development Project of Chongqing Rongchang [cstc2020ngzx0007], Key Technology Research and Development Programme of Shandong [2021CXGC010805-03], Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province [ZR2020QC181] and Doctoral Science Research Startup Funding of Qingdao Agricultural University [663/1120008].