Egg production and egg shell quality decrease toward the end of the first laying cycle in hens (approximately by week 80). Even so, farmers often choose to work a second cycle with them. Defective egg shell production has been mainly linked to a decrease in gastrointestinal absorption of calcium. Here we studied pharmaceutically-designed modified-release small pellets (FOLAs) containing calcium to improve calcium bioavailability (F). The influence of FOLA alone or with capsicum-oleoresin was studied in a total of 400 Bovans-White hens randomly divided into four groups of 20 laying hens each and with five replicates per group (n = 100) as follows: (1) control group (GC) receiving a diet containing basal levels of 4.1% of calcium-carbonate; (2) group GF treated as GC but with the same dose of calcium-carbonate in FOLA; (3) group GFc5 was treated as GF but with 6 ppm of capsicum-oleoresin (500,000 Scoville Heat Units [SHU]); and (4) group GFc10 treated as GFc5 but with 1,000,000 SHU capsicum-oleoresin. Plasma concentrations of calcium were determined during 5 days at predetermined times sampling more often on days 1 and 5 for blood plasma kinetics of calcium. Relative bioavailability (Fr) values based on the area under the serum calcium concentration vs. time curve (AUC) were obtained and compared to GC. The AUC was statistically different among all groups (P < 0.5), but the GFc10 had the greatest Fr (194%), with serum calcium concentrations ranging from 25.37 to 31.2 μg/dL. Calcium residence time (RT) between GC and GF showed no statistical differences while GFc5 and GFc10 had statistically superior RT values. Simultaneously, the number of shell-less eggs per group and their thickness was evaluated by utilizing the same groups but with 150 hens per group on 6 days. Shell-less eggs decreased to zero in Group GFc10 and produced eggs with the greatest shell thickness from day 2 onwards. The inclusion of calcium-carbonate in the pharmaceutical form FOLA induced higher serum calcium concentrations (GF, GFc5, and GFc10) particularly during the night-phase of the hen's cycle—this coincides with the time at which egg shell formation occurs.

母鸡在第一个产蛋周期结束时（大约在第80周时）产蛋量和蛋壳质量下降。即便如此，农民还是经常选择与他们合作进行第二个周期。蛋壳生产不良主要与胃肠道对钙的吸收减少有关。在这里，我们研究了含钙的药物设计的缓释小丸剂（FOLA），以提高钙的生物利用度（F）。总共研究了400只Bovans-White母鸡，将FOLA单独或与辣椒油树脂的影响随机分为4组，每组20只蛋鸡，每组重复5次（ñ= 100）如下：（1）对照组（GC）的饮食中基础含量为碳酸钙的4.1％；（2）GF组作为GC处理，但在FOLA中使用相同剂量的碳酸钙；（3）将GFc5组视为GF，但使用6 ppm辣椒油树脂（500,000 Scoville Heat Units [SHU]）；（4）GFc10组被视为GFc5，但具有1,000,000 SHU辣椒油树脂。在预定时间的5天内，在第1天和第5天更频繁地采样，以测定血浆血浆钙的血浆钙浓度。获得了基于血清钙浓度与时间曲线（AUC）下面积的相对生物利用度（Fr）值，并将其与GC进行了比较。各组之间的AUC在统计上是不同的（P<0.5），但GFc10具有最大的Fr（194％），血清钙浓度范围为25.37至31.2μg/ dL。GC和GF之间的钙停留时间（RT）无统计学差异，而GFc5和GFc10具有统计学上较高的RT值。同时，通过使用相同的组来评估每组无壳蛋的数量及其厚度，但是在6天时每组使用150只母鸡。从第2天开始，无壳蛋在GFc10组中降低至零，并产生具有最大壳厚度的蛋。药物形式FOLA中包含碳酸钙会导致较高的血清钙浓度（GF，GFc5和GFc10），尤其是在母鸡周期的夜间阶段，这与蛋壳形成的时间一致。