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

Background: The current study was conducted to evaluate egg quality and egg yolk fatty acids and immunoglobulin(Ig Y) content from laying hens fed full fat camelina or flax seed.Methods: A total of 75, 48-week-old Lohman brown hens were randomly allocated to 3 treatments, with 5replicates 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 Ig Y were determined every 28 d during the experimental period.Results: 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 Ig Y 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 Ig Y was highest in eggs from hens fed Camelina(P < 0.05).Conclusions: The egg n-3 fatty acid and Ig Y enhancing effect of dietary camelina seed warrants further attention into the potential of using camelina as a functional feed ingredient in poultry feeding.