Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, 40064 Ozzano dell'Emilia, Italy.
Poult Sci. 2018 Nov 1;97(11):4131-4136. doi: 10.3382/ps/pey275.
In the past years, consumers' concerns about sustainability and animal welfare have increased, strengthening the demand for eggs and meat produced through alternative and extensive farming methods. In addition, producers have also become increasingly interested in the recovery and exploitation of local breeds due to their adaptability to local environmental conditions, to valorize the biodiversity and to provide added value to typical products. Among the Italian local breeds, Romagnola has almost risked extinction and currently is reared in small-scale farms for eggs and meat production. The aim of this study was to characterize the egg quality traits of Romagnola chicken breed (RMG) compared to those obtained by a commercial hybrid (CONV). Ten laying hens of both Romagnola breed and Hy-Line Brown at 40 wk of age were housed in the same outdoor pen and fed the same commercial feed (ME 2,830 kcal/kg, CP 17.2%) for 10 wk. At 5 and 10 wk after housing, all the eggs laid in 4 consecutive days were collected and used for the determination of egg and eggshell characteristics as well as proximate composition and fatty acid profile of egg yolk. As expected, some important productive traits such as egg weight and production resulted higher in CONV chickens. However, eggs from RMG hens presented a higher yolk/egg ratio (31.1 vs. 24.9%; P < 0.01) as well as carotenoids (36.8 vs. 20.2 ppm; P < 0.01) and cholesterol content (12.8 vs. 11.7 mg/g of yolk; P < 0.01) than those laid by the conventional genotype. Moreover, yolks from RMG eggs were characterized by lower polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) n-6 content (22.6 vs. 28.4%; P < 0.01) and PUFA n-6/n-3 ratio (11.3 vs. 13.5; P < 0.01) showing a healthier fatty acids profile than conventional eggs. These results highlighted several valuable egg quality traits of Romagnola chicken breed that might be exploited for the conservation and the development of this underutilized Italian pure breed.
在过去的几年中，消费者对可持续性和动物福利的关注日益增加，这加强了对通过替代和广泛的养殖方法生产的鸡蛋和肉类的需求。此外，由于当地品种对当地环境条件的适应性、生物多样性的增值以及为特色产品提供附加值，生产者对恢复和利用当地品种也越来越感兴趣。在意大利的当地品种中，Romagnola 品种几乎已经灭绝，目前仅在小规模农场中用于生产鸡蛋和肉类。本研究旨在比较 Romagnola 鸡（RMG）与商业杂交鸡（CONV）的鸡蛋质量特性。40 周龄时，将 10 只 Romagnola 品种和 Hy-Line Brown 蛋鸡饲养在同一个户外围栏中，并在 10 周内喂养相同的商业饲料（ME 2,830kcal/kg，CP 17.2%）。在饲养后 5 周和 10 周时，连续 4 天收集所有产下的鸡蛋，用于测定蛋和蛋壳特性以及蛋黄的近似成分和脂肪酸谱。不出所料，CONV 鸡的一些重要生产特性，如蛋重和产蛋量较高。然而，RMG 母鸡产的蛋蛋黄/蛋比（31.1%比 24.9%；P<0.01）、类胡萝卜素（36.8 比 20.2ppm；P<0.01）和胆固醇含量（12.8 比 11.7mg/g 蛋黄；P<0.01）更高。此外，RMG 鸡蛋的蛋黄还具有较低的多不饱和脂肪酸（PUFA）n-6 含量（22.6 比 28.4%；P<0.01）和 PUFA n-6/n-3 比值（11.3 比 13.5；P<0.01），表明其脂肪酸谱更健康，优于普通鸡蛋。这些结果突出了 Romagnola 鸡品种的几个有价值的鸡蛋质量特性，可用于保护和开发这种未充分利用的意大利纯品种。
