Poultry Studies
2005, Vol 6, Num, 1 (Pages: 021-024)
Effects of Sunflower Oil Replacement by Acidulated Sunflower Soapstock Oil on Performance, Egg Quality and Fatty Acid Composition of Laying Hens
2 Ankara Üniversitesi, Ziraat Fakültesi Zootekni Bölümü, Ankara - This research was conducted to evaluate the effects of replacement of sunflower oil by it`s acidulated soap-stock in layer diets on performance and egg quality criteria. The experiment was conducted with 240 Brown Laying hens of Ankara Poultry Research Center (ATE-K) at 52 weeks of age for 11 weeks. Sunflower oil as an energy source was replaced by different levels (0, 25, 50, 75, 100 %) of sunflower soap-stock in the experiment. The diets used in the experiment were prepared as isonitrogenic and isocaloric containing 16 % crude protein and 2752 kcal ME/kg. Laying hens were randomly distributed into 5 treatments consisting 6 replicates with 9 hens in each. Replacement of sunflower soap-stock 25 % or more significantly increased egg mass and egg production compared to the control groups (P<0.05). Egg weight, egg consumption, feed efficiency and body weight gain were not significantly affected by the treatments. Although egg shell strength (P<0.05), shell percent (P<0.05) and Haugh unit (P<0.001) decreased significantly as sunflower soap-stock increased in the diet; while, egg yolk pigmentation improved (P<0.001). Replacement of sunflower oil by its acidulated soapstock also increased oleic acid content of the egg yolk, however, decreased the linoleic acid. According to the results of the experiment, acidulated sunflower oil soapstock can be successfully used as an alternative energy source to sunflower oil without any adverse effect on performance and egg quality in laying hen diets. Furthermore, it should be considered that increasing level of acidulated soapstock enriches the oleic acid content of the yolk. Keywords : Sunflower oil, acidulated sunflower oil, laying hens, performance, egg quality criteria
