Alfalfa Meal Supplementation Producing Vitamin e and Minerals Enriched Table Eggs

Abstract

Eggs are inexpensive nutrition source and consist of fat soluble vitamins. Vitamin E, selenium and zinc are found in a small amount in eggs. Alfalfa is an inexpensive natural source of vitamin E, selenium and zinc. Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dried alfalfa in a ratio of 0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% in diet additive on the increase ratio of vitamin E, selenium and zinc in eggs. In this experiment, a total of 180 birds (aged 27 weeks) were ranged in 6 treatments over three replicates including 10 birds of ISA-BROWN layer in each treatment. During the 17 weeks' experiment period (two weeks of preliminary period), the experimental results showed a significant increase in vitamin E, selenium and zinc contents. A proportional increase in the ration of vitamin E, selenium and zinc were recorded with the increase of the ration of the dried alfalfa additive in the diet. The highest ratio of the dried alfalfa (10%) showed the highest increase in the vitamin E, selenium and zinc. Moreover, no significant differences were recorded between the treatments in term of egg production performance.