Petru Alexandru Vlaicu, Tatiana Dumitra Panaite, Raluca Paula Turcu, Gabriela Maria Cornescu, Petruța Vișinescu
ABSTRACT. This experiment investigates the effect of flaxseed meal, rapeseed meal and vitamin E supplementation, when used together, on the production parameters of fatty acid composition and eggs quality characteristics in Tetra SL laying hens (38 to 46 weeks of age). For this, 120 hens were allocated one of three treatments, with 40 hens in each group. The hens were fed either a control diet (C), a control diet including 2.5 % flaxseed meal and 2.5% rapeseed meal (E1) or 2.5% flaxseed meal and 2.5% rapeseed meal with 73 mg/ kg feed of vitamin E as an antioxidant supplement (E2) for 8 weeks. Hens consuming the E1 diet had greater egg production and egg mass than those from group C. The feed conversion ratio in both the E1 and E2 groups was lower (P < 0.05) than in the C diet group. E2 had considerably higher egg weight, albumen pH, yolk pH and Haugh unit than E1 and C (P0.05), as a response to the vitamin E antioxidant effect. The most α-linolenic fatty acid content (1.07 g FAME) was found in eggs produced by chickens fed the E2 diet, (1.07 g FAME), followed by E1 (0.91 g FAME), with both being significantly higher than C eggs (0.23g FAME). Furthermore, all n-6 studied fatty acids concentrations were significantly lower (P < 0.05) in E1 and E2, while all n-3 fatty acids concentrations were significantly greater (P > 0.05) in E1 and E2. When comparing the n-6/n-3 ratio of fatty acids from experimental treatments (6.44 and 6.74) with C treatment (18.19), a significant difference was observed (almost 65% lower).
Keywords: egg fatty acids; egg quality; flaxseed; laying hens; rapeseed.
