Under the modern commercial farming model, various stressors, nutritional imbalances and continuous high production will cause oxidative damage to the fallopian tubes of laying hens. Oxidative damage to the fallopian tubes accumulates in the layer body over time, causing adverse effects on production performance, egg quality and immune performance. At the same time, oxidative damage to the fallopian tubes is also a potential cause of inflammation of the fallopian tubes of laying hens, which seriously threatens the reproductive health of laying hens. Icariin is the main active ingredient of the traditional Chinese herbal medicine Epimedium, and was selected as the quality control ingredient of Epimedium by the "Chinese Pharmacopoeia". Icariin has been shown to have pharmacological effects such as bone protection, regulation of reproductive function, neuroprotection, immune protection and antioxidant. Due to its antioxidant properties, icariin has shown good alleviation and treatment effects on various diseases related to oxidative stress. At the same time, icariin can alleviate the body's oxidative damage by participating in the regulation of inflammation. Icariin has also been found to improve follicular development, partially restore ovarian function and enhance fertility in aging mice. Previous studies have found that icariin is beneficial to the bone health of aged laying hens, but there have been no reports about its effects on laying hens’ performance, egg quality, fallopian tube redox status and inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, this experiment aims to study the effects of icariin on layer performance, egg quality, fallopian tube redox status and inflammatory cytokine gene expression, in order to provide a reference for the application of icariin in layer production in accordance with.
216 healthy romain powder layers of 54 weeks old and similar production performance were selected and randomly divided into 3 groups with 6 replicates in each group and 12 chickens in each replicate. The control group was fed with basal diet, and the experimental group I and group II were fed with basal ration supplemented with 0.05% and 0.20% icariin (based on fresh weight). The trial period is 1 week, and the trial period is 12 weeks. The results showed that: Compared with the control group, 1) The average egg weight of the laying hens in the test group II was significantly increased (P<0.05). 2) The protein height of the laying hens in the second group of experiment was significantly increased at 66 weeks of age (P<0.05). 3) The content of malondialdehyde in the oviduct tissue of the laying hens in the test group II was significantly reduced (P<0.05). 4) Relative expression levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the oviduct tissues of test group I and test group II Significantly reduced (P<0.05); the relative expression of interleukin-10 (IL-10) mRNA in the fallopian tube tissue of the test group I was significantly reduced (P<0.05); the tumor necrosis factor in the fallopian tube tissue of the test group The relative expression of -α (TNF-α) of mRNA was significantly reduced (P<0.05). It can be seen that the addition of icariin in the diet of laying hens can increase the average egg weight and protein height, reduce the oxidative stress of the fallopian tubes of the laying hens, and improve the immune function of the fallopian tubes.
