EFFECTS OF POPULATION DENSITY ON ENERGY UTILIZATION, INTESTINAL DISACCHARIDASES, AND ADRENAL FUNCTION IN HENS

Abstract

Two experiments were carried out with laying hens to determine the effect of overcrowding stress on reproductive performance and on certain other parameters that might be expected to be affected and thus be useful indices of this type of stress. The first experiment consisted of eight treatments in a factorial arrangement with four bird densities of one, two, three, or four birds in 30.5 × 45.7-cm (12 × 18″) cages and two levels of dietary energy. The second experiment involved three bird densities of one, three, and five birds in 30.5 × 45.7-cm cages fed a single diet. There were four replicate cages per treatment in both experiments. Feed consumption, weight gain, and egg production were not significantly affected by the population densities employed in experiment 1. In experiment 2, increasing bird density significantly reduced egg production, and hens maintained at five per cage suffered a net loss of body weight. In neither experiment was energy utilization affected by crowding since the dietary metabolizable energy values remained constant. In both experiments mucosal maltase and sucrase activities were significantly increased with increasing bird density when birds were fed diets of relatively normal starch content. Plasma-free fatty acids, total fatty acids, and triglyceride levels were not significantly affected by population density, nor were the oleic–linoleic–arachidonic acid levels expressed as percentages of total fatty acids. It would thus appear that lipid metabolism remained relatively normal in hens subjected to overcrowding stress. The levels of peripheral plasma corticosterone and adrenal corticosterone increased in a linear fashion in both experiments with increasing bird density. It would appear that plasma and adrenal corticosterone levels might be useful indices of overcrowding stress in hens.