Challenges and opportunities in the nutrition of laying hens

In this interview, Carlos de la Cruz, Global Consultant Expert at Evonik, discusses the critical challenges faced by the egg industry in providing optimal nutrition for laying hens. He highlights issues such as shortage of protein sources and the importance of balanced diets. Carlos also shares successful strategies for improving egg quality and flock health through innovative nutritional approaches, emphasizing the need to adapt to changing market demands and utilize all available amino acids to enhance productivity and sustainability.

Carlos de la Cruz: TToday, the egg industry faces many challenges, from Avian Infuenza risks, changes in eating habits, traceability protocols requested from consumers and authorities, to animal welfare pressure such as what to do with the day old male layer chick culling. From the nutritional point of view, protein sources such as soybean meal are suffering from different fronts; logistic supply due to geopolitical crisis, water scarcity, sustainable bean production among other political aspects that are pushing out soybean meals from the diets, mainly in Europe. Therefore, soya alternative protein sources are under evaluation to properly feed our layers, for example, rapeseed meal, sunflower meal, DDGS, or Insect meal.

Carlos de la Cruz: Back to basics! There are basic aspects in the layer nutrition that we should not forget to have a healthy and productive flock. 1. The quality of the bird at the onset of her production will greatly determine how profitable she will be during the laying. 2. Get to perfectly know the nutrient content of the raw materials used in the feed, nowadays using NIR technology we can evaluate not only nutrients, but we can also determine nutrient variations between suppliers and seasons to determine the safety margins to work. 3. Considerations of antinutritional factors of the feedstuff, with special attention on the heat processed ingredients. This will highly affect amino acid digestibility. 4. Optimum particle size distribution of the feed. 5. Amino acid balanced diet, there are many factors that can affect amino acid needs; therefore, this has to be evaluated constantly, especially if the layer has become much more productive as the one we have nowadays. Recently, Evonik determined layer’s amino acid requirements and validated them accordingly. The use of proper requirements will be determined by the egg market that we attend.

Carlos de la Cruz: The use of the “ideal” requirements will be determined by the egg market that we serve. Opportunities are driven by understanding the egg market we have in front and feeding the birds accordingly to fulfill market expectations. In other words, we must balance layer’s diets based on production targets, such as egg size or optimal egg mass. At the same time, the opportunities to use all supplemental amino acids available in the market. In layers, L-isoleucine can be a game changer, because this amino acid is limiting in layer diets after methionine, lysine, and threonine. Once Isoleucine requirement has been met, crystalline amino acids such as L-valine can also be used, something that is not common in layers nowadays. Thus, the availability of L-Ile in the market will allow to formulate more precise diets, reducing excess of dietary nitrogen, lowering soybean meal dependency, increasing fiber and corn inclusion that can even improve yolk pigmentation. More important for our market, reduce feed cost without affecting productivity.

Carlos de la Cruz: As mentioned earlier, taking care of the growing pullet, understanding nutrient variation in feed ingredients, optimum particle size distribution and nutrient balanced diets which can meet the nutrient needs of the modern layer will grant a successful production efficiency. However, nowadays we have the opportunity to excel with the use of all supplemental amino acids available in the market, reducing excess of nitrogen in the bird’s gut and poultry house environment, generating a proper gut environment for beneficial bacteria development and reducing pathogen growth. In addition, the use of probiotics has shown to be an effective strategy to reduce wet litter and dirty eggshells and thus, achieve more saleable eggs and profitability.