The effects of carotenoids in quail breeder diets on egg yolk pigmentation and breeder performance

ABSTRACT

The effects of supplementation of 10 mg/kg (i) apoester, (ii) canthaxanthin, (iii) 3% clover extract, (iv) paprika oleoresin and (v) aztec marigold extract pigments to a wheat-based non-pigmented feed on hatchery performance and egg yolk pigmentation in quail breeders were investigated. At six weeks of age a total of 432 Japanese quail breeders were randomly divided into 6 treatments, each of which was replicated 3 times, with 24 birds (18 female:6 male) per replicate. Hatchability was significantly better in the apoester treatment compared to the control, canthaxanthin, clover extract and paprika oleoresin treatments (p < .05) but similar to the aztec marigold treatment (p > .05). Total carotenoids concentration, YCF score, yellowness (b*) and redness (a*) of egg yolk were significantly higher in pigment-supplemented treatments compared to the control treatment (p < .05). YCF and redness (a*) were highly correlated in all treatments (0.94; p < .0001).

KEYWORDS:

• Breeder quail
• carotenoids
• yolk pigmentation
• performance
• Pearson correlation
• contrast test

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the following sources for providing the materials used in this study: canthaxanthin and apoester from DSM-Istanbul; paprika oleoresin and aztec marigold (Tagetes erecta) from Kemin, and clover extract (Px Agro) from Desials, Cedex-Franche). The authors also like to thank John Ewen for editing this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study received support from the office of Yuzuncu Yil University President’s Scientific Research Project Funding [grant no: 2010-FBE-YL160].