Supplemental dietary oils rich in oleic acid or linoleic acid attenuate egg yolk and tissue n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid contents in laying hens co-fed oils enriched in either stearidonic acid or α-linolenic acid

Feeding laying hens docosa hexaenoic acid-rich microalgae oil at 40 g/kg diet causes hypotriglyceridemia, depresses egg production, and attenuates expression of key genes affecting hepatic triglyceride synthesis and secretion, but is rescued by dietary co-supplementation of high-oleic sunflower oil

“…Thus, 1 or 2 of the eggs from hens fed 30 g/kg MAO would exceed a number of health organizations’ recommended daily intake of VLC n-3 PUFA for healthy adults (e.g., 250 or 500 mg combined EPA and DHA), while eggs from hens fed 20 g/kg MAO would approach those values. Furthermore, in contrast to results of previous work ( Elkin et al, 2018 , 2021 ), dietary supplemental HOSO did not appear to attenuate egg yolk DHA or VLC n-3 PUFA contents, but it did enrich egg yolks with OLA as compared to the diet with 40 g/kg MAO alone (Diets 6 and 7 vs. Diet 5; Table 7 ).…”

“…This was somewhat reminiscent of the effect of co-supplementing hens’ diets with OLA-rich olive oil to prevent the adverse effects of conjugated linoleic acid on chick embryo mortality and egg quality ( Aydin et al, 2001 ). Previous work in our laboratory has shown that co-feeding an OLA-rich plant oil with either ALA-rich flaxseed oil ( Elkin et al, 2018 ) or SDA-rich soybean oil ( Elkin et al, 2021 ) attenuated egg n-3 PUFA contents compared to feeding the ALA-rich or SDA-rich oils alone. It was hypothesized that dietary OLA may have “outcompeted” ALA and SDA for uptake from the intestine, that competition existed between OLA and ALA or SDA for esterification within intestinal and/or liver cells, or that OLA promoted the β-oxidation of ALA. An analogous result (i.e., lower DHA transfer to the egg) was anticipated in the present study with the 2 co-supplemented HOSO diets vs. the 40 g/kg MAO diet, but instead hen productive performance was rescued and a normal ovarian follicle hierarchy was restored.…”

“…A second objective was to observe the effect of the dietary DHA-rich MAO on hen performance and the expression of key genes related to VLDL and triglyceride synthesis and secretion. Lastly, based on prior studies in our laboratory which showed that co-feeding hens a high-oleic acid ( OLA ; 18:1 n-9) oil along with either a high-ALA flaxseed oil or a high-SDA soybean oil, attenuated egg yolk and tissue n-3 PUFA contents compared to feeding the ALA-rich or SDA-rich oils alone ( Elkin et al, 2018 , 2021 ), 2 additional diets were included in which high-OLA sunflower oil ( HOSO ) was co-fed with the high-DHA MAO.…”

Comparison of Ahiflower oil containing stearidonic acid to a high‐alpha‐linolenic acid flaxseed oil at two dietary levels on omega‐3 enrichment of egg yolk and tissues in laying hens

“…Also, the efficiency of VLCn‐3 synthesis and transfer into egg yolk of hens fed 1% FLAX oil was 0.19 and was decreased to 0.05 by increasing the oil level to 4% (Elkin et al (2018)). Lastly, Elkin et al (2021) reported that hens fed diets containing 4% high SDA‐soybean oil increased yolk total n‐3 and total VLCn‐3 by 220 and 119 mg, respectively, and feeding 4% high‐ALA flaxseed oil resulted in 527 and 127 mg/yolk total n‐3 and total VLCn‐3, respectively, compared to a conventional soybean oil control.…”

“…Regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between total n-3 FA intake and yolk total n-3 FA, yolk very-long chain n-3 (VLCn-3) FA, and VLCn-3 efficiency calculated as mg of VLCn-3 in yolk divided by total n-3 intake/d in 5 layer experiments feeding diets enriched in 18 carbon n-3 FA conducted over the past 14 years at Penn State (33 treatment means; Elkin et al, 2015Elkin et al, , 2018Elkin et al, , 2021. Simple regression was conducted and linear, quadratic, reciprocal, and exponential fits were tested.…”