Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep;103(5):1408-1417.
doi: 10.1111/jpn.13125. Epub 2019 May 27.

Effects of Spirulina algae as a feed supplement on nutritional value and flavour components of silkie hens eggs

Guoshun Chen  1 , Yu Cai  1 , Yingyu Su  1 , Bolan Gao  1 , Hongbin Wu  1 , Jiyou Cheng  2
Affiliations

Effects of Spirulina algae as a feed supplement on nutritional value and flavour components of silkie hens eggs

Guoshun Chen et al. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2019 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: Silkie chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus brisson) is also named Chinese Taihe chicken, characterized by blue comb, green earlobes, black skin, meat and bones. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of spirulina feeding on the nutritive value and flavour of silkie hens eggs.

Methods: A total of 280 Silkie hens of 42 weeks old were fed 4 different diets, including basal diet and basal diet containing 0.1%, 0.3% and 0.5% spirulina. Each diet group was divided into 70 Silkie hens experimentally. The production performance of silkie hens, the nutritional compositions [e.g., amino acids (AAs) and fatty acids] and flavour substances of silkie hens eggs were compared with control.

Results: A 0.3% and 0.5% spirulina feeding significantly increased the average egg production rate and average egg weight, while only 0.3% spirulina feeding decreased both the average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio of silkie hens compared with the controls (p < 0.05). The contents of crude protein, fat, cholesterol and Ca in silkie hens eggs were significantly increased by 0.3% spirulina feeding (p < 0.05). Only fat and cholesterol were significantly increased by 0.5% spirulina but had no significant difference compared with 0.3% spirulina. The flavour, amino acids/total AAs, and saturated fatty acids/unsaturated fatty acids in silkie hens eggs were significantly increased by 0.3% spirulina feeding than other groups (p < 0.05). A total of 46 volatile substances were identified in silkie hens eggs, and the substances of total acids, alkanes and aldehydes were significantly increased by 0.3% spirulina feeding.

Conclusion: Spirulina feeding at a proportion of 0.3% improved the production performance of silkie hens, and nutritive value and flavour of silkie hens eggs.

Keywords: flavour components; nutritive value; silkie hen egg; spirulina feeding.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Abouelezz, F. M. K. (2017). Evaluation of spirulina algae (Spirulina platensis) as a feed supplement for Japanese quail: Nutiritional effects on growth performance, egg production, egg quality, blood metabolites, sperm-egg penetration and fertility. Egyptian Poultry Science Journal, 37, 707-719. https://doi.org/10.21608/epsj.2017.5390
    1. Ahsan, M., Habib, B., & Parvin, M. (2008). A review on culture, production and use of spirulina as food for humans and feeds for domestic animals and fish. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 33, 1034.
    1. Aliani, M., & Farmer, L. J. (2005). Precursors of chicken flavor. I. determination of some flavor precursors in chicken muscle. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 53, 6067-6072.
    1. Batista, A. P., Gouveia, L., Bandarra, N. M., Franco, J. M., & Raymundo, A. (2013). Comparison of microalgal biomass profiles as novel functional ingredient for food products. Algal Research, 2, 164-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2013.01.004
    1. Brewer, M. S., & Vega, J. D. (2010). Detectable odor thresholds of selected lipid oxidation compounds in a meat model system. Journal of Food Science, 60, 592-595. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1995.tb09834.x

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources