290 Vitamin C, iron and phosphorous deposition in eggs of pullets fed dietary supplement of vitamins C and D at the mid laying phase

Abstract

The increasing demand for functional foods has heightened request for designer egg products. Supplementing poultry diets with vitamins may increase deposition of certain nutrients in the egg thus enhancing consumer’s health. Therefore, the deposition of vitamin C (VC), iron and phosphorous in eggs of hens fed dietary supplement of VC and vitamin D (VD) at the mid laying phase was assessed in this study. Bovan brown pullets (n = 576) aged 40 weeks were allotted to 12 treatments each replicated six times. A replicate comprised eight pullets. A basal diet was formulated and supplemented with three levels of VC (0, 300 and 600mg) and four levels of VD (0, 1000, 2000 and 3000IU) in a 3 x 4 factorial arrangement and a completely randomized design. At week 46 (sixth week of feeding experimental diets), two eggs were randomly sampled from each replicate and immediately assayed for phosphorus, iron and VC. There was no significant effect (P > 0.05) of supplemental VC on the deposition of phosphorus, iron and VC in eggs. Similarly, phosphorus, iron and VC deposition in eggs of pullets on supplemental vitamin D were not significantly different (P > 0.05). Effect of Interaction of supplemental VC and VD was not significant (P > 0.05) on VC and iron deposition. However, phosphorus deposition in the egg differed significantly (P < 0.05) with varying combinations of VC and VD. Pullets on combined 600mg VC + 3000iu VD, 600mg VC + 1000iu VD and 300mg VC + 0iu VD supplementation recorded similar levels (P > 0.05) of 180.50, 180.60 and 178.67mg/100g phosphorous, respectively which were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than other levels of combinations. Thus, dietary supplementation of VC and VD had no effect on deposition of VC and iron but enhanced pullets egg phosphorus deposition at the mid laying stage.