Abstract
L-carnitine is used as feed additive in poultry diets to increase yield and to improve feed efficiency. The major role of L-carnitine appears to be the transport of long-chain fatty acids into mitochondria for À oxidation. This experiment was carried out to determine the effects of two levels of fat (10 and 30 g kg-1 DM) and two levels of L-carnitine (0 and 250 mg kg-1) on performance, egg quality, and blood parameters of laying hens in a factorial arrangement (2~2) with completely randomized design with six replicates and four laying hens in each replicate. During the experiment feed intake, egg weight, egg production, feed conversion ratio, and some blood parameters (triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL, HDL), egg quality (albumen height, egg shell thickness, egg shell breaking strength), and cholesterol content of eggs were measured. Results of this experiment indicated that supplementation of L-carnitine in laying hens diets had not significant effect on performance, cholesterol content of eggs, but decreased the levels of triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL in blood serum and increased albumen height of eggs significantly (p
Highlights
IntroductionL-carnitine is used as feed additive in poultry diets to increase yield and to improve feed efficiency
L-carnitine is used as feed additive in poultry diets to increase yield and to improve feed efficiency.Plants and plant-based feedstuffs generally contain very little carnitine compared with animal tissues (Baumgartner and Blum, 1993, 1997)
L-carnitine is biosynthesized in vivo from lysine and methionine in the animal tissues (Rebouche and Paulson 1986)
Summary
L-carnitine is used as feed additive in poultry diets to increase yield and to improve feed efficiency. Plants and plant-based feedstuffs generally contain very little carnitine compared with animal tissues (Baumgartner and Blum, 1993, 1997). L-carnitine is biosynthesized in vivo from lysine and methionine in the animal tissues (Rebouche and Paulson 1986). Several reports on broiler and pig have demonstrated that growth performance can be improved by feed-. Ing supplementary dietary L-carnitine (Weeden et al 1991, Lettner et al 1992). Showed that albumen weight and height of eggs were significantly increased by supplementary L-carnitine (50 mg kg-1) in drinking water in laying hens exposed to high ambient temperature (35–37 °C) for. Kita et al (2005) reported that supplemental Ing supplementary dietary L-carnitine (Weeden et al 1991, Lettner et al 1992). Celik et al (2004)
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