PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF MAGNETIC WATER AND ITS EFFECT ON EGG PRODUCTION TRAITS IN HENS AT LATE LAYING PERIOD

M. I. El Sabry1*, M. H. Abdelfattah2, H. A. Abdellatif2, S. E. Aggrey3 and S. S. Elnesr4

1Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, 6 El-Gamma St., 12613, Giza, Egypt; 2Animal Production Researches Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Dokki, Egypt; 3Department of Poultry Science, University of Georgia, Athens 30602-2772, GA, USA; 4Department of Poultry Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, 63514 Fayoum, Egypt

*Corresponding author Email: M.ELSABRY@daad-alumni.de

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to evaluate the egg production traits of laying hens receiving magnetic water (MW) for one month. Sixty Fayoumi hens at 54 weeks of age were used. On d 1 of the trial, hens were randomly assigned to control (non-magnetic water) and treatment (magnetic water, MW) groups. During the experiment, pH and electrical conductivity (EC) of water were recorded. The water nano-structure was investigated by electron microscopy. In parallel, egg mass, egg number, egg weight, egg production, and feed intake were recorded daily. Results showed that both pH and EC values of MW were higher compared to those of non-magnetic water (P ≤ 0.05). In MW, notable changes in the order and size of water molecules at the edge of water clusters were observed. Providing MW for the first two weeks did not affect any of productive traits. From third week of the experiment, egg production of MW group (34.5 ± 1.8 %) was significantly higher than this (27.8 ± 2.1 %) of control ones. In conclusion, physiochemical properties of MW may indirectly maintain hens’ productivity in late age. Nevertheless, interdisciplinary investigations should be carried out to elucidate the mode of action of MW and probable side effects if any.

Keywords: magnetized water; magnetic field; egg production; egg weight; water properties.