Abstract
Developing new sources of organic selenium (Se) has potential benefits for animal production and human nutrition via animal-based foods enriched with Se. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of Se-enriched insect protein (SEIP) in comparison with other sources, such as sodium selenite (SS) and selenium-enriched yeast (SEY), on performance, egg quality, selenium concentration in eggs, serum biochemical indices, immune capacity, and intestinal morphology of laying hens. Four hundred and fifty 24-week-old Hy-Line Brown laying hens with 94.0 ± 1.5% laying rate were randomly allocated to five groups with six replicates of 15 hens each. The control diet was prepared without adding exogenous selenium (calculated basal Se content of 0.08 mg/kg). The normal group was fed basal diets supplemented with 0.3 mg/kg of Se provided by sodium selenite. Three treatment groups (SS, SEY, and SEIP, respectively) were fed basal diets supplemented with 2 mg/kg of Se provided by sodium selenite, Se-enriched yeast, and SEIP, respectively. The feeding trial lasted for 12 weeks. Results revealed that dietary supplementation of 2 mg/kg of Se increased egg weight, decreased feed conversion ratio, and enhanced the antioxidant capacity of eggs in laying hens relative to the control group, whereas no significant differences were observed among SS, SEY, and SEIP treatment groups for the same. The organic source of Se provided by SEY or SEIP showed higher bio efficiency, as indicated by higher selenium content in eggs of SEY and SEIP compared with SS, although higher content was observed in SEY compared with SEIP. Also, the organic Se source significantly improved antioxidant capacity and immune functions of laying hens than the inorganic Se source. Diets supplemented with SEIP and SS significantly improved jejunal morphology of the laying hens compared with SEY, whereas SEIP was more effective than SEY to improve the oviduct health of laying hens. The results of this work evidently points the additive effect and nontoxicity of SEIP. Thus, SEIP could be used as another organic source of Se in the diet of laying hens and production of selenium-enriched eggs for humans.
Highlights
Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element for animal and human health and plays a key role in biological functions, such as body development and metabolism, immune function, antioxidant defense system, aging, and reproduction [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Dietary sodium selenite (SS), selenium-enriched yeast (SEY), and Se-enriched insect protein (SEIP) supplementation increased egg weight and decreased Feed conversion ratio (FCR) of laying hens relative to the control group, and no significant differences among the dietary sources were found (SS, SEY and SEIP). This is consistent with previous reports that Se supplementation culminates in significantly enhanced egg production, egg weight, daily egg mass, and feed conversion ratio compared with the control group [28, 32], but varies with the results that both source and level of SS and SEY had no effects on egg weight and FCR [29, 33, 34], and nano-Se decreased the egg production and increased the FCR [35]
Diets supplemented with 2 mg/kg of inorganic or organic Se increased egg weight, decreased FCR, and enhanced the antioxidant capacity of eggs in laying hens relative to the control group, and no significant differences among the treatments SS, SEY, and SEIP was observed
Summary
Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element for animal and human health and plays a key role in biological functions, such as body development and metabolism, immune function, antioxidant defense system, aging, and reproduction [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Se as a nutritional feed additive is widely used in livestock industry to maintain health and performance via increasing the antioxidant capacity of the animals [7, 8]. As an essential mineral element, the requirement of Se for laying hens is relatively low, about 0.3 mg/kg in diets, whereas once as an nutritional additive, its supplementation should be elevated to increase bioefficiency [9]. It is needed to exploit low-toxic and even nontoxic Se sources for laying hens. The Se additives common used in the poultry feed include inorganic forms, such as sodium selenite and nano-Se, and organic forms, like Se-enriched yeast and Se-Met [11, 12]
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