Effects of dietary vitamin E on the quality of table eggs enriched with n-3 long-chain fatty acids

Abstract

Because of the proposed cardioprotective benefits of n-3 fatty acids and vitamin E, a trial was carried out to investigate the possibility of enriching eggs with n-3 fatty acid and vitamin E added to the hen's diet. One hundred ninety-two Hy-Line Brown hens, 39-wk-old, were divided into eight groups: four groups received the basal diet supplemented with 3% lard and four doses of dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate (0, 50, 100, and 200 ppm), whereas the diets of the other groups were supplemented with 3% of fish oil and the same doses of vitamin E. The performances of the hens and egg weights were not affected either by the type of lipid supplement or by the vitamin level. The treatment with fish oil caused a dramatic increase (P < 0.01) of all n-3 fatty acids of the yolk, particularly EPA (19.53 vs. 0.74 mg/egg) and DHA (143.70 vs. 43.66 mg/egg), and an appreciable decrease of arachidonic acid (25.54 vs. 67.72 mg/egg). The different levels of dietary vitamin E slightly affected the fatty acid composition of the yolk. Yolk alpha-tocopherol increased linearly as dietary dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate increased (P < 0.01) from the control level of 90.93 microg/g of yolk to 313.84 microg/g of yolk when 200 ppm were added to the hen diets. Twenty-eight days of storage at room temperature (20 to 25 C) did not alter the yolk fatty acid profile, and, moreover, the levels of vitamin E remained still very close to those observed in fresh egg.

Ovarian follicular development, lipid peroxidation, antioxidative status and immune response in laying hens fed fish oil-supplemented diets to produce n-3-enriched eggs

“…Generally, the concentrations of n-3 PUFA increased, whereas n-6 PUFA tended to decrease in yolk lipids, and the fatty acid composition of the yolks reflected the dietary fish oil levels. The changes in yolk n-3 PUFA shown here due to feeding graded levels of fish oil (Table 2) are in agreement with previous reports (Meluzzi et al, 2000;Gonzalez-Esquerra and Leeson, 2000). Meluzzi et al (2000) indicated that the treatment with 3% fish oil caused a dramatic increase (P < 0.01) in all n-3 fatty acids of the yolk, particularly EPA and DHA, and caused an appreciable decrease in arachidonic acid (ARA, 20 : 4(n-6)).…”

“…The changes in yolk n-3 PUFA shown here due to feeding graded levels of fish oil (Table 2) are in agreement with previous reports (Meluzzi et al, 2000;Gonzalez-Esquerra and Leeson, 2000). Meluzzi et al (2000) indicated that the treatment with 3% fish oil caused a dramatic increase (P < 0.01) in all n-3 fatty acids of the yolk, particularly EPA and DHA, and caused an appreciable decrease in arachidonic acid (ARA, 20 : 4(n-6)). Similar results were reported by Huang et al (1990) who found that the n-3 PUFA content of the yolk is positively related to the addition of fish oil at the rate of 2%, 3% or 4% to the diet.…”

“…Also, the present study indicates a concomitant decrease (P < 0.05) in ARA in the egg yolk lipids (Figure 1a). Meluzzi et al (2000) indicated that the ARA content was significantly lower in 3% fish oil treatments. This phenomenon is probably due to the greater utilisation of D-6-desaturase in the n-3 fatty acid pathway with respect to the n-6 pathway, as this enzyme acts in both pathways.…”

Evaluation of natural and synthetic vitamin E on production performance, egg quality and vitamin E content of yolk in laying hens

“…Yu (1994) have reported that VE is an excellent biological chain-breaking antioxidant that protects cells and tissues from lipoperoxidative damage. Various studies also reported that the amount of VE in yolk was associated with the amount of VE in the diet and confirmed a linearly increased relationship between dietary a-tocopheryl acetate supplementation level and a-tocopheryl egg yolk concentration (Meluzzi et al 2000;Grobas et al 2002). Similar with the current study, the inclusion of VE led to a greater VE concentration in egg yolk compared with CON group, which confirmed that the egg yolk VE concentration is related to the VE amount in the diets.…”

Dietary vitamin E (α-tocopheryl acetate) and organic selenium supplementation: performance and antioxidant status of broilers fed n-3 PUFA-enriched feeds

“…In contrast, it was noted that less food was consumed by hamsters fed fish oil-containing diets supplemented with vitamin E than unsupplemented diets, while BWG was not affected by vitamin E supplementation (Poirier et al, 2002). In a study conducted with layer hens, it was found that vitamin E supplementation at different levels to diets enriched with PUFAs did not affect performance (Meluzzi et al, 2000;Sijben et al, 2002) and in contrast to these studies, Scheideler & Froning (1996) noted that vitamin E supplementation (50 IU/kg) to a diet enriched with n-3 PUFAs significantly improved egg production in layer hens. While some reports (Coetzee Guo et al, 2001;Özkan et al, 2007) describe a lack of response in performance to supplementation with vitamin E under normal conditions, others have shown improvements in performance.…”