Laying performance, egg quality and feed stability in response to replacement of inorganic zinc, copper and manganese with hydrixychloride sources in hy-line layer hen's diet

Traditionally, Zn, Cu and Mn have been added to poultry diets in the form of inorganic salts, such as sulphate, to meet requirements and prevent deficiencies. The sulphate sources of trace minerals have low bioavailability, are highly water soluble and reactive in the feed and digestive tract (Ma et al., 2011). Hydroxychloride minerals (HyC) are a class of naturally occurring minerals with fully defined crystalline structure, where the crystal is held together by a series of covalent bonds between the metal ion, multiple hydroxyl groups and the chloride ions. Compared to inorganic salts, HyC minerals have been found to be less water soluble, more bioavailable and exhibit less oxidant promoting activity in the feed (Perez et al., 2017).