Positive Impact of AZOMITE® on Commercial Egg Production

January 5, 2016 / General Info / No Comments »

Doug Fodge¹, James McNaughton², Al Olinde², Roger James³

¹ DF International, ² AH Pharma and ³ AZOMITE Minerals

Improving production rates and the quality of hen eggs are topics that concern most societies worldwide, because eggs continue to be a quality nutrition resource for mankind (Jones, 2010). This paper concerns the use of AZOMITE® in layer diets. AZOMITE® (AZO) is the registered trademark name of an ore that contains ~ 70 minerals and trace elements, unique to the deposit from which it is mined. Nutritionists have a good understanding of the biochemical function of ~ 10 essential trace minerals, but it is recognized that several other trace or micro-trace minerals found in AZO are important (Tompkins & Bird, 1998) despite knowledge gaps about their functions.

==>Read/download the complete paper here.

CONCLUSIONS.

1. Including AZO in the feeds of Novogen White and Hy-Line Brown layers resulted in achieving peak egg production about 1 week sooner and superior egg production continued until the end of the two studies.
2. Eggs from both AZO-treated hen strains were larger than control feed groups, and the Brown eggs had heavier & thicker shells.
3. Yolk weights were improved by the presence of AZO.
4. The presence of AZO in diets improved feed consumption/dozen eggs produced by 5% in the Novogen hens and 3.7% in the Hy-Line hens.
5. Body weights of the Novogen hens were not changed by the presence of AZO, but body the weights of Hy-Line birds eating an AZO diet were increased by 34 grams in the 24 week feeding program.
6. The presence of AZO did not change the cadmium, lead or mercury content of AZO eggs compared to control eggs.
7. B3 hens were fed a diet containing 0.25% w/w AZO up to and through week 12. After this these hens were fed an AZO-free diet. The result was that the removal of the Azo from B3 hens caused a reversion to the egg weight performance of the B1 animals, although yolk weight was still improved, at least up to 24 weeks, even though Azo was no longer in the B3 post-12 week diet.
8. Shell weight and thickness of the W eggs were not changed but those of the B eggs were improved by AZO. In the field study during hot weather (~ 33 ⁰C), the  specific gravity of the eggs from the W hens was improved by eating AZO for just 2 weeks.

==>Read/download the complete paper here.