The Effects of Feeding a Whole-in-Shell Peanut-Containing Diet on Layer Performance and the Quality and Chemistry of Eggs Produced

Kari L Harding,Ramon Malheiros,Kenneth E Anderson,Ondulla T Toomer,Thien Vu,Rebecca Wysocky

doi:10.3390/agriculture11111176

Kari L Harding, Ramon Malheiros + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11111176

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Abstract

The abundance of peanut and poultry production within the state of North Carolina and the US Southeast, led us to conduct a layer feeding trial to determine the utilization of whole-in-shell high-oleic peanuts (WPN) and/or unblanched high-oleic peanuts (HOPN) as an alternative feed ingredient for poultry. To meet this objective, we randomly assigned 576 shaver hens to 4 dietary treatments (4 rep/trt). The dietary treatments consisted of a conventional control diet (C1), a diet containing 4% WPN, an 8% HOPN diet, and a control diet containing soy protein isolate (C2). Feed and water were provided for 6 weeks ad libitum. Pen body weights (BW) were recorded at week 0 and week 6 (wk6), and feed weights were recorded bi-weekly. Shell eggs were collected daily and enumerated. Bi-weekly 120 eggs/treatment were collected for quality assessment and egg weight (EW), while 16 eggs/treatment were collected for chemical analysis. There were no significant differences in BW or EW at week 6. Hens fed the C2 produced more total dozen eggs relative to C1 hens over the feeding trial (p < 0.05). Hens fed the C1 diet consumed less total feed relative to the other treatments with the best feed conversion ratio (p < 0.05). Most eggs produced from each treatment were USDA grade A, large eggs. There were no differences in egg quality, with the exception of yolk color, with significantly higher yolk color scores in eggs produced from the C1 and C2 treatments relative to the other treatments (p < 0.05). Eggs produced from the HOPN treatment had significantly reduced stearic and linoleic fatty acid levels relative to the other treatments (p < 0.05). Eggs produced from hens fed the WPN diet had significantly greater β-carotene content relative to eggs from the other treatment groups (p < 0.05). In summary, this study suggests that WPN and/or HOPN may be a suitable alternative layer feed ingredient and a dietary means to enrich the eggs produced while not adversely affecting hen performance.

Highlights

North Carolina is one of the top six peanut producing states (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina), which produce most the US annual peanut crop. [1]
In our previous layer feeding trials, we demonstrated that layer body weight, and feed intake of hens fed a 24% unblanched peanut diet was similar to that of hens fed a non-conventional control diet containing soy protein isolate, defatted soybean meal, and yellow corn [3]
Palmitoleic acid, an omega-7 monounsaturated fatty acid, levels were highest in the high-oleic peanuts (HOPN) and control-1 experimental diets, relative to the other treatment groups

Summary

Introduction

North Carolina is one of the top six peanut producing states (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina), which produce most the US annual peanut crop. [1]. Numerous studies have been conducted to explore the effective utilization of peanuts and/or peanut by-products within the animal feed as value-added feed components [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] and to enhance agricultural sustainability

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