Nutrient digestibility, egg quality, and fatty acid composition of brown laying hens fed camelina or flaxseed meal

Abstract

SUMMARY Flaxseed and camelina are gaining popularity as feed ingredients because of their high content of α-linolenic acid (18:3n-3), an n-3 fatty acid. The current study was designed to evaluate apparent fatty acid and CP digestibility, AMEn, egg quality, and egg yolk fatty acids of brown egg layers fed a corn-soybean diet containing 10% camelina or flax meal. Experimental diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous. A total of seventy-five 24-wk-old Lohman brown hens were randomly allocated to 3 treatments, with 5 replicates containing 5 hens in each replicate. The hens were fed a corn-soybean basal diet (control), or control diet with 10% camelina meal (CAM10) or flax meal (FLAX10) for a period of 12 wk. The apparent digestibility of fatty acids, CP, and AMEn were measured using celite (external inert marker). Egg quality parameters were determined every 28 d during the experimental period. The CP digestibility and AMEn were decreased (P < 0.05) in CAM10 and FLAX10 compared with control. Feeding CAM10 or FLAX10 resulted in higher egg production (P < 0.05) compared with the control. The egg weights and Haugh units increased, and eggshell thickness decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in FLAX10 birds. The egg yolk content of α-linolenic acid and total n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids was higher in CAM10 than in other treatments (P < 0.05). α-Linolenic acid digestibility was lowest in FLAX10 birds. Feeding CAM10 reduced the digestibility of linoleic acid (18:2n-6) (P < 0.05). In general, inclusion of camelina and flax meal reduced CP digestibility and AMEn while increasing egg production in brown layers.