Egg Yolk Cholesterol of Hens Fed Barley Malt Rootlets

This study aimed to decrease the cholesterol content of egg yolk of laying hens through inclusion of barley malt rootlets in the diets. Forty-two, 54-week-old, Lohman laying hens were fed for a 12 weeks laying pe-riod on 3 iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous diets contained 0 (control), 25.5 or 51.1g barley malt rootlets/kg. Inclusion of barley malt rootlets at 25.5 or 51.1g/kg diet significantly decreased (P < 0.001) concentrations of plasma cholesterol (by 54.9 and 33.3%, respectively) and triglycerides (by 26.4% and 27.3, respectively) compared with the control. Feeding barley malt rootlets at 25.5 g/kg diet tended to decrease (P > 0.05) con-centrations of total lipids, triglycerides, cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins and phospholipids in egg yolk by 4.7, 5.7, 5.2, 3.9 and 5.3% respectively, while its inclusion at 51.1 g/kg diet significantly (P < 0.05) de-creased the same respective parameters by 10.4, 10.4, 10.4, 10.6 and 11.22% respectively, compared with the control. It could be concluded that inclusion of barley malt rootlets in laying hen diets at 25.5 g/kg diet tended to decrease cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins in egg yolk (by 5.2 and 3.9%, respectively, while its inclusion at 51.1 g/kg diet decreased cholesterol and triglycerides concentrations in blood plasma and also decreased cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins in egg yolk (by 10.6 and 10.4%, respectively).