PERFORMANCE AND EGG QUALITY OF LAYING HENS FED WITH DIETARY RAW MATERIALS RICH IN PUFA Ω:3

The effect of dietary flaxseed meal, rapeseed meal and fodder peas on layers' performances and egg quality was investigated in a 6-wk feeding trial on 168 Tetra SL layers (65 weeks) assigned to 4 groups (C, E1, E2, E3). The commercial (C) diet had 2750 kcal ME and 16.4% CP. Compare to diet C, the experimental groups were fed with flaxseed meal (3%, E1), flaxseed meal-fodder peas (3%; 10%; E2), flaxseed meal-rapeseed meal (3%; 10%; E3) which increased the dietary level of the total polyunsaturated fatty acids PUFA n-3 (% of total fat) to 5.72(E1), 6.87 (E2) and 5.65 (E3) compared to group C (1.19), in diet. At the end of the trial, 18 eggs/group were collected to determine the eggs nutritional and quality parameters. The results showed that egg intensity was lower (P <= 0.05) in all experimental groups. Egg weight (g) in E1 (65.39) was higher (P <= 0.05) compared to all other groups. Also, yolk colour intensity increased significantly (P <= 0.05) in all experimental groups compared to C group. Similarly, the results showed that PUFA n-3 acid content was higher in all experimental groups (3.14%; 3.38% and 3.53%) compared to C group (1.13%). In conclusion, using dietary raw materials rich in PUFA n-3 had a positive influence on laying hens' egg quality and improved the nutritional quality indices of the lipids in egg yolks.