Effects of Supplementary Blood Meal on Carnosine Content in the Breast Meat and Laying Performance of Old Hens

Abstract

The objective of this research was to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of blood meal (BM) as a source of histidine, and magnesium oxide (MgO) as a catalyst of carnosine synthetase, on carnosine (L-Car) content in the chicken breast muscle (CBM), laying performance, and egg quality of spent old hens. Four hundred eighty laying hens (Hy-Line ® Brown), 95wk old, were allotted randomly into five replicates of six dietary treatments: T1; 100% basal diet, T2; 100% basal diet+MgO, T3; 97.5% basal diet+ 2.5% BM, T4; 97.5% basal diet+2.5% BM+MgO, T5; 95% basal diet+5% BM, T6; 95% basal diet+5% BM+MgO. Magnesium oxide was added at 0.3% of diets. The layers were fed experimental diets for 5wk. There were no significant differences in the weekly L-Car content in CBM among all treatments during the total experimental period, but some of the contrast comparisions showed higher L-Car in CBM of T6. The L-Car contents linearly decreased (p<0.01 or p<0.05) as the layers got older except in T4 (p>0.05). There were significant differences in egg weight (p<0.01) and soft and broken egg ratio (p<0.05). The control (T1) was highest in egg weight and T6 was lowest in soft and broken egg ratio. Among the parameters of egg quality, there were significant differences in eggshell strength (p<0.01) and egg yolk color (p<0.05). Magnesium oxide supplementation increased the eggshell strength and BM tended to decrease egg yolk color. Eggshell color, eggshell thickness, and Haugh unit were not influenced by BM and MgO. In conclusion, BM and MgO did not significantly influence the L-Car in CBM of spent layers. The L-Car content rapidly decreased as the layers became senescent. Eggshell strength was increased by MgO supplementation.

Effects of Dietary Supplementation of Histidine, β-Alanine, Magnesium Oxide, and Blood Meal on Carnosine and Anserine Concentrations of Broiler Breast Meat

“…Dietary Mg supplementation increased carnosine concentrations only for broilers fed the diet containing BM at 28 d, whereas no positive effects were observed in other ages. Inconsistent results of dietary Mg supplementation were also observed by Namkung et al (2010) who reported that Mg supplementation in diets containing 5% BM increased carnosine concentrations of breast meat of laying hens only at 2 weeks during whole 5 weeks feeding trial. The reason for these variable results with age is not clear because there has been the lack of data pertaining to the relationship among carnosine synthetase activity, Mg as a cofactor, and age.…”

Effect of Amino Acids on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics, Meat Quality, and Carnosine Concentration in Broiler Chickens

“…The research results of Hu et al (2009) showed that broiler performances and feed conversion were not influenced by supplementation of carnosine to feed. By applying certain treatments, the positive effect of MgO on performances of chickens was reported by Namgung et al (2010). As opposed to Hu et al (2009), Kralik et al (2015) determined that feeding treatments (L-histidine at 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3%, P ＝0.040) had an effect on broiler live and carcass weights.…”

The Expression of Carnosine and Its Effect on the Antioxidant Capacity of <i>Longissimus dorsi</i> Muscle in Finishing Pigs Exposed to Constant Heat Stress

“…Carnosine is a potent ROS scavenger, which inhibits lipid peroxidation and protein damage ( Namgung et al, 2010 ). Carnosine supplementation decreases MDA levels in both liver and brain tissues of constant cold-stressed rats ( Kalaz et al, 2012 ).…”