Egg quality, fatty acid composition and immunoglobulin Y content in eggs from laying hens fed full fat camelina or flax seed

Gita Cherian, Nathalie Quezada

The current study was conducted to evaluate egg quality and egg yolk fatty acids and immunoglobulin (IgY) content from laying hens fed full fat camelina or flax seed. A total of 75, 48-week-old Lohman brown hens were randomly allocated to 3 treatments, with 5 replicates containing 5 laying hens each replicate. The hens were fed corn-soybean basal diet (Control), or Control diet with 10 % of full fat camelina (Camelina) or flax seed (Flax) for a period of 16 wk. Hen production performance egg quality, egg yolk lipids, fatty acids and IgY were determined every 28 d during the experimental period. Egg production was higher in hens fed Camelina and Flax than in Control hens (P < 0.05). Egg weight and albumen weight was lowest in eggs from hens fed Camelina (P < 0.05). Shell weight relative to egg weight (shell weight %), and shell thickness was lowest in eggs from hens fed Flax (P < 0.05). No difference was noted in Haugh unit, yolk:albumen ratio, and yolk weight. Significant increase in α-linolenic (18:3 n-3), docosapentaenoic (22:5 n-3) and docoshexaenoic (22:6 n-3) acids were observed in egg yolk from hens fed Camelina and Flax. Total n-3 fatty acids constituted 1.19 % in Control eggs compared to 3.12 and 3.09 % in Camelina and Flax eggs, respectively (P < 0.05). Eggs from hens fed Camelina and Flax had the higher IgY concentration than those hens fed Control diet when expressed on a mg/g of yolk basis (P < 0.05). Although the egg weight was significantly lower in Camelina-fed hens, the total egg content of IgY was highest in eggs from hens fed Camelina (P < 0.05). The egg n-3 fatty acid and IgY enhancing effect of dietary camelina seed warrants further attention into the potential of using camelina as a functional feed ingredient in poultry feeding.