Effects of Using Processed Amaranth Grain with and without Enzyme on Performance, Egg Quality, Antioxidant Status and Lipid Profile of Blood and Yolk Cholesterol in Laying Hens

Babak Hosseintabar-Ghasemabad; Hossein Janmohammadi; Ali Hosseinkhani; Saeid Amirdahri; Payam Baghban-Kanani; Ivan Fedorovich Gorlov; Marina Ivanovna Slozhenkina; Alexander Anatolyevich Mosolov; Lourdes Suarez Ramirez; Alireza Seidavi

doi:10.3390/ani12223123

Effects of Using Processed Amaranth Grain with and without Enzyme on Performance, Egg Quality, Antioxidant Status and Lipid Profile of Blood and Yolk Cholesterol in Laying Hens

Animals (Basel). 2022 Nov 12;12(22):3123. doi: 10.3390/ani12223123.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz 5166616471, Iran.
² Volga Region Research Institute of Manufacture and Processing of Meat-and-Milk Production, 400131 Volgograd, Russia.
³ Department of Animal Pathology, Animal Production, Bromatology and Food Technology, Veterinary Faculty, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35412 Arucas, Spain.
⁴ Department of Animal Science, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht 41335-3516, Iran.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of feeding Amaranthus hybridus chlorostachys grain (AG) with (+E) and without enzyme (−E) on performance, egg quality, antioxidant status and lipid profile of blood serum and yolk cholesterol in laying hens. A total of 960 white leghorn (Hy-line W-36) commercial layers (56 weeks) were divided into 10 groups with 8 replicates per group (12 birds per replicate, including 3 adjacent cages with 4 birds each). A completely randomized design was implemented with a 5 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments consisting of five levels of AG (0, 100, 200, 300 and 400 g/kg) and two levels of multienzyme complex addition (0 −E and 0.25 +E g/kg) fed to the hens for 12 weeks (2 wk. adaptation + 10 wk. main experiment). Feed intake (FI) and percentage of hen day production (HDP) were not affected by main effect of the AG level, but egg mass (EM) and egg weight (EW) were decreased (p < 0.01), and the feed conversion ratio (FCR) was impaired (p < 0.01). EM, EW and FCR were improved by enzyme addition (p < 0.01). EM, EW and FCR were affected (p < 0.01) by the interaction of AG and enzyme addition. The highest value of EM and the lowest value of FCR were observed in hens on the diet containing 200 g/kg AG with enzyme addition. Egg yolk cholesterol content was reduced (p < 0.05) by up to 10% with increasing levels AG in experimental diets. The egg quality traits, including Haugh units of protein quality, strength and shell thickness, were not affected by the main effects or interaction of AG and enzyme consumption. Amaranth feeding led to a decrease (p < 0.05) in triglyceride (TG) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) while also promoting increases (p < 0.05) in the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of the blood. A comparison of the effects of contrasts showed that functional parameters (except FI), yolk cholesterol, antioxidant parameters (except MDA) and blood lipid profile had differed significantly (p < 0.05) between the hens fed amaranth versus those not fed amaranth. These findings indicate that feeding a diet containing up to 200 g/kg of AG with enzyme addition can improve EW, EM and FCR. Feeding laying hens diets containing AG also positively influenced blood traits and antioxidant status in laying hens while reducing egg yolk cholesterol content.

Keywords: amaranth grain; blood lipid; multienzyme; total antioxidant capacity; yolk cholesterol.

Grants and funding

Financial support from Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran, (grant number 17.16.1.462) is gratefully acknowledged. The study was carried out according to the State task of the State Scientific Institution NIMMP.