Impact of functional diet and basil leaf (Ocimum sanctum) meal on layer egg’s fatty acid level and layer’s production performance

Abstract

A total of 144 single comb ‘Forsgate’ strain white leghorn (SCWL) pullets of 27 weeks of age, belonging to the same hatch, and of uniform body size were randomized into 24 groups of 6 hens each in a 2 × 3 factorial design consisting of two types of layer feeds namely, standard layer mash (control) and functional diet (designer egg layer mash-DELM); each with three levels of basil leaf meal (BLM) i.e. 0, 1 and 2 g/kg diet levels, viz. T1 to T6. Four replicates were randomly assigned to each of the six dietary treatments. One egg yolk from each replicate was used for the fatty acid estimation. The layer’s body weight gain, per cent hen-day egg production, feed/egg parameter did not show any variations between diets and basil leaf meal dosage level. The feed consumption was significantly different between diets and not between BLM levels. The diets and BLM levels had highly significant effect on Myristic acid (C14:0), Palmitic acid (C16:0), Stearic acid (C18:0), Oleic acid (C18:1); n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, viz. Linoleic acid (C18:2), Arachidonic acid (C20:4) and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, viz. α-Linolenic acid (C18:3), Eicosapentaenoic acid-EPA (C20:5) and Docosahexaenoic acid-DHA (C22:6) levels. Both DELM and BLM significantly increased the n-3 PUFA levels in egg yolk.