AkintolaAdvances

et al / Advances in Agricultural
in Agricultural Biotechnology
Biotechnology 1 (2011)1 (2011)
73-76 73-76

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Advances in Agricultural Biotechnology

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EFFECT OF OESTROGEN ON EGG PRODUCTION AND EGG QUALITY TRAITS IN SEC-

OND YEAR LAYERS

Akintola, O.A1, Ajuogu, P.K2. and Ajayi, F.O2.

1
Department of Animal Science Rivers State University of Science & Technology, Oroworokwu, Nigeria
2
Department of Animal Science & Fisheries University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
.

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of graded levels of
Accepted: oestrogen on egg laying performance and egg quality traits in second cycle
Available online: 4 October 2011 layers. Sixty (60) Brown Lohmann breeds of laying birds of 69 weeks old
were randomly assigned to four treatment groups of 15 birds per treatment
and three replicates of 5 birds per group in a completely randomized design
(CRD). Graded dosage levels of oestrogen (0µg, 10 µg, 20 µg and 30 µg)
were administered for eight (8) weeks. Statistical analysis of the data col-
lected on egg production and egg quality traits revealed that oestrogen had
Keywords: significant influence (P<0.05) on egg production better than the control and
Laying performance, the other treatments group. No significant difference (P>0.05) were observed
egg quality, on egg quality traits (egg weights, shell thickness, yolk and albumen weights)
oestrogen among the treatment groups. It was therefore concluded that oestrogen admin-
istered at dosage rate of 10µg had significant improvement on egg production
performance on second cycle layers.

© 2011 woaj Ltd. All rights reserved

1. Introduction than other steroids found in the environment. It is specu-

Oestrogen is a steroid hormone produced by the
developing follicles in the ovaries. It is one of the pri-
mary steroid hormones which are lipophilic and poorly
soluble in water [11]. The most common oestrogens are
oestrone, oestrodiol-17 and oestroil. Oestrone and oes-
trodiol-17 are the most important steroids because they
are physiologically effective at lower concentrations
* Corresponding author.
email address: folsaade_ajayi@yahoo.coml
2011 woaj Ltd. All rights reserved
lated that reproductive hormones can improve egg lay-
ing performance in laying birds especially at old age,
when the adult laying birds decline in production and
also the shell quality deteriorate [7]. Oestrogen controls
the female sexual development; it is also known to cause
fertilization in man [5]. In birds, oestrogen is the differ-
entiating hormone for gonadal development, its presence
in the female is the differentiation antigen for the het-
erogametic gonad in the avian ovary. This gene product
is present in both sexes and activated by exposure to
embryonic oestrogen. This makes avian sexual reversal
from male to female possible, including expression of H
-W antigen through the administration of oestrogen to
the genetically male egg during the critical stage of em-
bryonic development [4]. When oestrogen is absent, the
gonad develops into testes, but when present for the
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 Akintola et al / Advances in Agricultural Biotechnology 1 (2011) 73-76
normal female development the left gonad develop into
an ovary while the right gonad regresses. This research
work is designed to determine the influence of admini-
stration of oestrogen on the egg production performance
and egg quality characteristics of second year layers.
2.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS
Sixty (60) Lohmann brown laying hens aged 69
weeks in their second laying cycle were used for the
study at the Teaching and Research Farm of Rivers State
University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt.
The birds were randomly distributed into four treatment
groups A, B, C and D of twelve hens per treatment in a
completely randomized design. The birds were reared
on deep litter. On arrival the birds were weighed, served
with water containing vitamin to alleviate the stress en-
countered in transporting them from the source to Rivers
State University of Science and Technology, Teaching
and Research Farm. They were dewormed on the third
day of their arrival using levamisol.
The experiment lasted 10 weeks, the first two
weeks were allowed to adaptation of the birds to their
new environment, while the following eight weeks were
used for the administration of oestrogen.
The medications were dispensed at dosage of 0µg,
10µg, 20µg and 30µg per 15kg of feed to treatments A,
B, C and D respectively. Freshly laid eggs were col-
lected in the morning and evening from the first day of
the administration of oestrogen till the last day of the
experiment and egg production for the day subsequently
computed. Two eggs were randomly marked once
weekly from the treatment groups.
The parameters measured were egg production per-
formance and egg quality traits such as egg weight, shell
thickness, albumen weight and yolk weight. The eggs
were weighed using Harry’s weighing scale, while the
shell thickness was measured with the use of micro-
meter screw gauge. The yolk and albumen were meas-
ured by making a small hole at the pointed end of the
egg through which albumen gravitationally flowed out
having the yolk inside, after which the shell was broken
to collect the yolk. Matter electronic balance was used
to measure the albumen and yolk separately. Data col-
lected was subjected to one way Analysis of Variance
(ANOVA) and the means separated using the Least Sig-
nificant difference (LSD)
3.0 RESULTS
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of effect of oestro-
gen on the egg production potentials reveals significant
differences (P<0.05) between the treatment groups
(Table 1). The average weekly egg production per bird
and percent weekly weekly egg production per bird was
significantly different (P<0.05) between treatment
groups. Treatment B (10µg) was significantly higher
(P<0.05) for average percent egg production/ bird
(97.1%), average weekly egg production(6.8eggs) and
average weekly egg production 44.0eggs whereas least
values were recorded for birds on treatment D(20µg) for
the same parameters (68.5%, 4.8eggs and 24.00eggs
respectively for percent egg production, weekly egg
production.
Oestrogen treatments showed significant difference
(P<0.05) on egg weight. Treatment C (20µg) has higher
significant influence of 58.08 over treatments A (0µg,
53.8g), B(10µg;56.6g) and D(30µg;56.2g) respectively.
But it did not reveal any significant difference (P>0.05)
on shell thickness, while it had slight numerical differ-
ence on yolk weight, 15.05g, 15.06g, 15.48g and 15.86g
for albumen weight with increasing levels of oestrogen
in the treatments (Table 2).
4.0 DISCUSSION
Effects of Oestrogen of Egg Production
The study showed that oestrogen had significant
improvement on egg production. This is in agreement
with [3] who reported that oestrogen cuts on the liver to
stimulate the egg yolk lipids production. [10] and [8]
reported that oestrogen events influence on the produc-
tion of the yolk processions in the liver of the bird; it
increases the production of apolipoprotein B (the main
protein essential for assemblage of very low density
lipids in the liver. [9] reported that large doses of oestro-
gen can suppress the secretion of pituitary gonadotro-
phins and thereby inhibit completely folliculogenesis.
That is large doses of oestrogen can inhibit the process
of egg formation and follicular development. This is
revealed by the reduced egg production observed in
treatments C (20µg) and D(30µg) of oestrogen which
represent increased dosage of oestrogen. The egg was
observed to decline as the dosage of oestrogen increases.
Effects of Oestorgen on Egg Quality Traits
The egg is an important trait of interest to consum-
ers who are ready to pay a premium on layer eggs.
The mild influence of oestrogen treatments ob-
served on the egg weight, shell thickness and albumen
weight is supported by [2] who reported that oestrogen
increases the serum growth hormone receptors in the
kidneys and directly reverses the renal activity of hy-
droxylase which is responsible for the formation of 1,25
dilydeoxycholecalcifenol that mediates in intestinal ab-
sorption of calcium thereby increasing the concentration
of calcium binding protein in the target cells [1]. [6]
observed that oestrogen implants improve calcium up-
take throughout the intestine. There is a strong interrela-
tionship between the weight of egg and shell thickness
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with the rate of calcium absorption and availability. This
could be the reason for the observed effects of oestrogen
on shell thickness. They observed numerical differences
on albumen and yolk weights by the oestrogen treatment
corroborate the report of [10] that oestrogen influences
the production of the egg yolk in the liver of birds. [3]
reported that the action of oestrogen on the liver stimu-
late the production of egg yolk lipids and causes the
enlargement of the oviduct which is the secretory organ
for albumen formation.
5.0 CONCLUSION
The experiment revealed significant improvement
on egg traits with 10µg oestrogen over the control and
higher dosages. Therefore it is concluded that oestrogen
had significant improvement on egg production and
mild improvement in the egg quality traits at low dosage
10µg.

Table 1: Effect of Oestrogen on Egg Production Performance of second year layers

Treatment Egg production/week/bird Egg production /day % Egg production

0µg (A) 28.25 5.65 80

10µg (B) 44.00 6.80 97.1

10µg (C) 28.25 5.65 80.71

30µg (D) 24.00 4.8 68.5

Table 2: Effect Oestrogen on Egg Quality Traits of second year layers

Treatment Egg wt (g) Shell thickness (nm) Yolk weight (g) Albumen weight (g)

0µg (A) 53.8±1.74b 0.21±0.01 15.05±0.53 43.22±1.35

10µg (B) 56.6±1.45b 0.24±0.10 15.06±0.62 44.33±0.44

10µg (C) 58.0±0.1a 0.24±0.01 15.48±0.40 44.62±1.87

30µg (D) 56.2±0.75b 0.24±0.00 15.86±0.34 45.55±0.56

a,b, Mean within the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (P<0.05).

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