Effect of feeding linseed oil and vitamin a on production performance, egg characteristics and egg yolk fatty acids in laying hens under sub-tropical conditions Ahmad S.*, Kamran Z.1, Ahsan-ul-Haq2, Yousaf M.2, Ali S.3, Atta-ur-Rehman4, Ahmed I.1, Ahmad H.I.5, Koutoulis K.C.6 Department of Poultry Science, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur-63100, Pakistan 1Dept. of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur-63100, Pakistan 2Institute of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Animal Husbandry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38040, Pakistan 3Govt. Poultry Farm, Livestock and Dairy Development Department, Punjab, Bahawalpur-63100, Pakistan 4Research Support SectionPakistan Science Foundation, Islamabad-44000, Pakistan 5Dept. of Animal Breeding and Genetics, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan 6Dept. of Avian Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Karditsa-43100, Greece *Corresponding author: drshakeel@iub.edu.pk
Online published on 1 October, 2022. Abstract In the present study, linseed oil and vitamin A were fed to the laying hens during hot summer months to produce n-3 PUFA-enriched eggs. Two hundred and forty White Leghorn hens were randomly divided into 24 replicates and fed diets, for 12 weeks,2 with 0, 2, 3, or 4% linseed oil in combination with 3000 or 10000 IU vitamin A/kg. The results revealed that the supplementation of linseed oil and vitamin A to the diets did not affect (P>0.05) the production performance and egg characteristics in laying hens. However, body weight and feed intake were decreased (P<0.05) with the increase in dietary linseed oil levels. The serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose, egg cholesterol and triglycerides levels were similar (P>0.05) for all dietary treatment groups. However, serum HDL-cholesterol was increased while LDL-cholesterol was decreased in laying hens with the increase in dietary linseed oil supplementation. The total n-6 PUFA and n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio were decreased while the n-3 PUFA were increased linearly (P<0.001) in the egg-yolks by increasing dietary linseed oil level. Vitamin A did not influence (P>0.05) the egg-yolk fatty acid contents. It might be concluded that, the supplementation of linseed oil to the laying hens kept at high environmental temperature is beneficial for the production of n-3 PUFA-enriched eggs without any considerable effects on production performance. Top Keywords Egg quality, Layers, Linseed oil, Performance, Vitamin A. Top |