مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - The effects of safflower meal on the performance, egg quality traits, yolk fatty acids and cholesterol levels in laying hens

Abstract :

In this study, the effects of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) meal (SM) on performance parameters,egg internal-external quality characteristics and egg yolk fatty acid profiles, yolk cholesterol ratio inlaying hens were examined. The research design was a completely randomized design. The treatmentswere represented by six diets with increasing levels of inclusion (0, 3, 6, 9, 12 ve 15%) of SM and eachgroup had twelve replications. Each replication had one laying hen and 43 weeks old 72 laying henwere used in study. The water and feed were given ad libitum. The daily lighting time was 16.5 hours.In the present study, which lasted for nine weeks (63 days), the different doses of SM did not affect theliveweight, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, egg yield, egg weight, shape index, albumenindex, yolk index, shell weight, shell thickness, shell strength, Haugh unit, yolk weight, yolk fat ratioand yolk colour (P 0,05). But, the effects of different doses of SM on cholesterol, total saturated fattyacid and total unsaturated fatty acid contents of egg yolk were found significant (P 0.05).According to the results of this study, safflower meal can be used in laying hen diets up to 15 % withoutany adverse effects on performance, mortality and egg quality traits.