Effects of two supplemental proprietary vitamin-mineral premixes, blend of phyto-additives and storage duration on egg quality of Isa Brown layer chickens

Abstract

Egg quality has been found to be influenced by diet variation and storage duration, hence the need to further explore the role of phyto-additives in enhancing egg quality. Two supplemental proprietary vitamin-mineral premixes, blend of phyto-additives (moringa+turmeric) with or without vitamin C and days of storage (DOS) on egg quality were assessed. Moringa-Turmeric leaf powder (MTLP) contained (g/kg): 914.5 dry matter, 122.4 crude protein, 31.5 ether extract, 105.4 ash and 46.4 crude fibre. Seventy-two (72) Isa Brown layers (22 weeks in lay) were divided into four treatments and six replicates each with three layers per replicate. Four maize-soybean meal basal diets were formulated such that diet A contained a proprietary vitamin/mineral premix. Diet B contained yolk colorant vitamin/mineral premix. Diet C had MTLP at 5g/kg diet while diet D contained MTLP (5g/kg) + Vit C (0.5g/kg diet). The diets were fed for eight weeks after which 45 eggs per treatment were picked and stored under room temperature. Nine eggs per treatment were evaluated on day 1 for egg quality parameters and subsequently after 7, 14, 21 and 28 DOS. Data were subjected to two-way analysis of variance using completely randomized design. As DOS increased, egg weight (EW), Haugh unit (HU), yolk index (YI), yolk color (YC) and shell thickness (ST) significantly (P<0.05) decreased. HU and YI were not significantly affected (P>0.05) up to day 21 in layers fed diets C and D. Reductions in HU and EW were 33.69 vs 27.43 and 9.49 vs 6.18% in eggs from layers fed diets A and D, respectively after 28 DOS. MTLP had no adverse effect on quality of stored eggs at the level studied.

Keywords: Egg quality, Layers, Phyto-additives, Yolk pigmentation