Abstract
This experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of Korean, Japanese and Chinese green tea on laying performance and egg quality in hens. A total of 168 Tetran Brown hens aged 40 weeks were assigned to 7 treatments in a completely randomized design. Each treatment had 4 replicates accommodating 6 layers per replication. The seven dietary treatments were: 1) control diet with no green tea added, 2) diet containing 1.0% Korean green tea (1.0% KGT), 3) diet containing 2.0% Korean green tea (2.0% KGT), 4) diet containing 1.0% Japanese green tea (1.0% JGT), 5) diet containing 2.0% Japanese green tea (2.0% JGT), 6) diet containing 1.0% Chinese green tea (1.0% CGT), and 7) diet containing 2.0% Chinese green tea (2.0% CGT). Egg production rate of the layers fed diets containing 1.0 or 2.0% green tea powders were significantly increased compared to that of the control (p 0.05). Green tea feeding to layers tended to reduce the overall cholesterol content of egg yolk. Particularly, 1.0 or 2.0% CGT significantly depressed the total cholesterol content of egg yolk (p<0.05). In conclusion, incorporation of 1.0 or 2.0% Korean, Japanese and Chinese green tea into layer diets regardless of origin had favorable effects on laying performance and egg quality profiles. Among the three green tea sources, the Chinese green tea powder had the highest reducing effect on cholesterol content in egg yolk. (Key Words : Green Tea, Hen, Egg Production, Feed Intake, Egg Shell Thickness, Yolk Cholesterol)
Highlights
The rapid decline of egg consumption over the past 30 years is the most challenging problem facing the egg industry in many parts of the globe
The negative perception related to a high cholesterol content of eggs (195-250 mg/egg) is undoubtedly a major contributing factor (Yaffee et al, 1991) in the decrease of egg consumption
In our previous work (Uuganbayar et al, 2005), we found that Korean green tea inclusion in a layer diet depressed the cholesterol content of egg yolk
Summary
The rapid decline of egg consumption over the past 30 years is the most challenging problem facing the egg industry in many parts of the globe. Consumers’ attitudes towards lipid and oil have changed and egg consumption has declined because of fears that egg yolk cholesterol will raise blood cholesterol levels (Connor and Connor, 1983). The negative perception related to a high cholesterol content of eggs (195-250 mg/egg) is undoubtedly a major contributing factor (Yaffee et al, 1991) in the decrease of egg consumption. Several attempts have been made to recover the egg consumption by changing egg composition through feeding nutritionally-modified diets. Green tea (Camellia sinensis), an anti-aging herb, has Uuganbayar et al, (2006) Asian-Aust.
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