Abstract

Simple SummaryChicken eggs provide a considerable source of high-quality nutrients for human food and health. However, egg consumption may harm some people for its high contents of cholesterol and association with cardiovascular disease risk. Therefore, we investigated the possible effect of using Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA) as a probiotic additive in the laying hens’ diets on lowering egg-yolk cholesterol and also evaluated the immune responses and the productive performance of laying hens. The obtained results display the ability of LA, when supplemented in hen diets, to decrease the plasma triglycerides and cholesterol levels and the liver and egg yolk cholesterols in the hen. The beneficial effects of LA were also explored on some important humoral and cell-mediated immune responses in the laying hens. These positive effects led to an improvement in the productive performance of laying hens. Therefore, dietary LA supplementation could be recommended as a nutritional strategy for commercial lower-cholesterol egg production in addition to positive impacts on the performance and health of laying hens.This study examines the effect of dietary supplementation with Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA) on the cholesterol levels, immune response, and productive performance of laying hens. A total of 216, 40-week-old, commercial Hy-Line brown chicken layers were randomly assigned into four treatment groups (18 birds × three replicates per group) and fed diet supplemented with 0 (control), 1 × 109, 21 × 109, and 31 × 109 colony forming units (CFUs) of Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA) per kg of feed for six consecutive weeks. Results show that plasma triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and total cholesterols became lesser, while high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol became higher in LA-supplemented groups compared to the control. In addition, a significant reduction occurred in the liver and egg yolk cholesterol by LA supplementation. Moreover, the immunological parameters including antibody titer against sheep red blood cells (SRBCs), phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-wattle swelling test, and T- & B-lymphocyte proliferation were enhanced in laying hens supplemented with LA compared to the control hens. While the heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratio decreased with LA supplementation, indicating low stress conditions in the treated hens. These positive effects for LA were further reflected on the productive performance of laying hens and improved egg production, egg weight, egg mass, and feed efficiency. Our findings indicate that LA probiotic could be recommended in laying hens’ diets for lowering egg yolk cholesterol with positive impacts on health and performance.

Highlights

  • Chicken eggs are considered as an important and inexpensive source of high-quality protein.In particular, eggs contain various fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals that the human body requires to be healthy [1]

  • Plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in laying hens treated with 2 × 109 and 3 × 109 colony forming units (CFUs)/kg Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA) was significantly (p < 0.05) increased by 6.3 and 9.7%, respectively, compared to the control group

  • With respect to the liver and egg yolk cholesterol, results indicate that dietary LA supplementation significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the liver cholesterol in all treated groups by approximately 14.6–21.9% when compared to the control group, while the LA supplementation at the levels of 2 × 109 and 3 × 109 CFU/kg significantly (p < 0.05) reduced egg yolk cholesterol by 23.4 and 25.5%, respectively, compared to the control group (Table 2)

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Summary

Introduction

Chicken eggs are considered as an important and inexpensive source of high-quality protein.In particular, eggs contain various fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals that the human body requires to be healthy [1]. Egg consumption may lead to a significant elevation in plasma cholesterol levels and may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) [2], which is a leading cause of people deaths worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries, according to reports of the World Health Organization [3]. To this end, lowering cholesterol content of eggs by genetic selection or nutritional strategies in laying hens has been a target of great research in the last few decades; results were inconsistent with wide variation responses [4]. Lactobacillus acidophilus is a species of non-spore-bearing lactic acid bacteria and has been used as probiotic to improve broiler [9,10] and layer [11,12,13] chicken performance

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