1. An experiment was conducted to investigate the possibility of lowering the yolk cholesterol of the egg by supplementing the diet with supraoptimal amounts of copper (50, 150 or 250 mg/kg) as sulphate or acetate. 2. A significant reduction in egg production and a negative effect on food conversion was found when 250 mg/kg of copper was added compared to the control (no added copper). Acetate seemed significantly less harmful in both cases. 3. A significant linear reduction was found in plasma and yolk cholesterol (20% and 14%) and in plasma and yolk triglycerides (24% and 30%) as the dietary copper content was increased from 0 to 250 mg/kg. 4. Regardless of type or quantity of copper, cholesterol and lipids were decreased linearly as birds remained longer on the treatments. A significant interaction between quantity and period showed a greater reduction at a later time. 5. If slightly lower egg production can be accepted, the addition of 250 mg/kg copper might be beneficial in reducing the cholesterol content of the yolk.

No abstract

A bs true t Najib, H., Al-Yousef, Y.M. and Hmeidan, M. 1994

Due to the harsh environment of Saudi Arabia, yellow corn and soybean, the main energy and protein sources of the poultry diet are not successfully grown in this area. Therefore search for a locally produced alternative is of utmost important. Early studies suggested that bakery products could b e considered as energy substitute. Tons of dried bakery waste (DBW) are produced in the local bakeries of Saudi Arabia. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the use of dried bakery waste in the diets of broilers. Five levels of DBW: 0 , 5, 10, 20 and 30% were fed to 250 broiler chicks. These diets were iso-caloric iso-nitrogenous containing 3200 kcal/kg metabolizable energy (ME) with 22% crude protein in the starter diet and 20% protein and 3200 kcal/kg ME in the finisher diet. The results provided evidence that inclusion of up to 30% DBW in the broiler diets had no harm effect on the performance of the birds. It was concluded that DBW, obtained from local bakeries can replace part of the corn in the broiler diets without negatively affecting the performance.

Saudi Arabia produces about 0.5 million tons and about 130,000 tons of poultry meat and eggs respectively per year and depends mainly on imported protein concentrate for feeding these birds. Therefore, it is important to produce poultry feed using locally available materials. The objective of this research was to find the feed value of the microbial protein, produced from date waste to broiler chickens. Experiment was conducted using different levels of single cell protein yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, (0, 5, 10 and 15 %) in the diets of broiler chickens. Diets were formulated to feed 120 day old broilers. The chicks were randomly distributed in to 12 battery pens each contained 10 chicks. The dietary treatments were assigned to the cages in such a way that each dietary treatment was assigned to 3 battery pens (replicates). Results of the chemical analysis showed that level of the yeast proteinwas 51.88 %. This protein was found to be rich in Lysine (1.02 %). Methionine level of the protein was not as high as the Lysine (0.27 %). Level of fat in the yeast was only 6.41 %; however, its content from Oleic acid was 43.2 %. Linoleic and Linolenic levels were 0.85 and 0.14 %, respectively. Performance of the birds revealed no significant differences(P>0.05) between the control birds and birds on 5 % level of the yeast in terms of final body weight and final cumulative feed conversion .However there was a clear indication that addition of 15 % single cell protein may be harmful to the birds. It was concluded that adding 5 % single cell protein, produced from Date Palm fruit waste to the broilers, produce no adverse effect to the performance of the birds and can be included in their diet.