Nutritional characteristics and quality of eggs from laying hens fed on a diet supplemented with chestnut tannin extract (Castanea sativa Miller)

Abstract

1. The trial was performed with 80 laying hens belonging to two Tuscan autochthonous breeds: 40 birds of the Mugellese (MU) breed and 40 of the White Leghorn (WL) breed.

2. The animals were allotted to 4 groups of individually caged 20 hens each: two groups were fed on a commercial diet and worked as the control groups (MUC and WLC); the other two groups received the same diet, integrated with 2 g of chestnut tannin (CT) extract per kg of diet (MUT and WLT).

3. A sample of 70 eggs were randomly collected and analysed for cholesterol content, fatty acid (FA) profile, weight, thickness of shell and colour of yolk.

4. Physical parameters, including yolk colour, and indices of egg quality were not affected by the treatments.

5. The concentration of unsaturated FAs increased, whereas cholesterol was significantly decreased: −17% in WLT and −9% in MUT. Dietary supplementation with CT extract resulted in a modification of lipid composition, towards a more healthy quality of eggs.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In memory of Dr Alessandro Sandrelli, a good researcher and marvellous friend.

The authors thank Mr Silvano Lancini of the “Dipartimento Di Scienze delle Produzioni Agro-Alimentari e dell’Ambiente” for his precious technical assistance in animal management during the trial, the University of Florence for financing this research and Gruppo Mauro Saviola srl, Radicofani, Siena, Italy, for the provision of chestnut tannin.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Università degli Studi di Firenze.