Effect of dietary fish meal on production performance and cholesterol content of laying hens.

The effect of dietary fish meal (FM) on production and egg yolk cholesterol of commercial Hyline White Leghorn hens (24-week old) was studied for four weeks. Eighty birds were given a corn-wheat-soyabean meal diet that contained either 0% (control diet, C) or 3% fish meal (DM basis). Hens were randomly divided into two experimental treatments with four replicates (10 hens per replicate). Egg weight, daily egg production (g/hen/day), daily feed consumption and feed conversion ratio were recorded. At the end of each week, 12 eggs from each group were randomly collected and egg yolk cholesterol, egg volume, shell thickness and Haugh unit (HU) were measured. There was no significant (p > 0.05) effect of feeding 3% FM on egg yolk cholesterol concentration (mg/100 g yolk or mg/yolk) compared with the control diet, but 3% FM, tended to decrease egg yolk cholesterol concentration (1930.93 vs 2021.48 mg/100 g yolk). Hens fed on 3% FM had higher (p < 0.05) egg production, egg weight, egg volume, shell thickness, HU and better feed conversion ratio. It was concluded that under the condition of the study, feeding 3% fish meal improved egg production traits but was not able to reduce cholesterol concentration of the egg yolk although tended to reduce cholesterol concentration.