Masters Degrees (Office of the Dean: Natural and Agricultural Sciences)
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Item Open Access Effect of ꞷ-3 lipid sources on layer performance and egg quality during peak production(University of the Free State, 2022) Potgieter, Beate; De Witt, F. H.; Hugo, A.; Josling, G. C.The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary omega-3 lipid sources on the production performance of laying hens during the peak laying period. Experimental treatments consisted of a control diet containing 0% supplementary lipid and four lipid sources (varying in omega-3 fatty acid chain length) mixed into the basal diet at 1.5%, respectively. The lipid sources used were fish- (EPA, C20:5 & DHA, C22:6), soybean- (ALA, C18:3), linseed- (ALA, C18:3) and echium oil (SDA, 18:4). A total of 150 Hy-Line Silver-Brown hens (21 weeks of age) were allocated to five experimental diets (n=30 birds/treatment). During weeks 24, 28, 32, 36 & 40, all eggs produced were recorded and weighed individually, while feed intake and body weight of birds were determined. Data were pooled to calculate the average production performance of the peak laying period. A one-way ANOVA procedure was used to analyse the data. Results indicated that omega-3 lipid sources had no effect on feed intake, feed efficiency or egg output. Birds from the control treatment recorded lower (P< 0.05) body weights (1729 g). Although hen-day egg production was lower for the soybean oil treatment compared to linseed oil (94.3% vs. 96.7%), sellable eggs did not differ between treatment means. No clear trends were observed for the effect of omega-3 lipid source on peak production performance of laying hens. The omega-3 lipid source had minor effects on peak production performance of laying hens.