Effect of dietary defatted diatom biomass on egg production and quality of laying hens

Table 5 Effect of defatted diatom microalgal biomass on egg quality at the 4 ^th and 8 ^th wk

Item	Control	7.5% Algae	7.5% Algae	15% Algae
Item	Control	-SBM	-SBM/Corn	-SBM/Corn
At the end of the 4^th wk
Egg weight, g	60.00 ± 3.93	59.49 ± 5.25	59.28 ± 3.79	60.69 ± 3.61
Haugh unit	86.6 ± 4.0	84.6 ± 6.4	85.6 ± 7.1	88.6 ± 5.7
Yolk weight, g	15.79 ± 1.42	16.35 ± 1.42	15.77 ± 1.22	15.92 ± 0.82
Egg shell weight, g	5.29 ± 0.57	5.70 ± 2.11	5.37 ± 0.39	5.60 ± 0.54
Albumen weight, g	38.81 ± 2.96	38.21 ± 3.89	38.13 ± 2.83	39.00 ± 3.24
Egg shell thickness, mm	0.34 ± 0.03	0.34 ± 0.03	0.36 ± 0.03	0.36 ± 0.03
At the end of the 8^th wk
Egg weight, g	59.99 ± 2.51	58.09 ± 1.49	59.25 ± 1.75	60.05 ± 1.26
Haugh unit	82.6 ± 3.1	82.0 ± 3.3	81.6 ± 2.0	84.6 ± 1.4
Yolk weight, g	16.11 ± 0.71	16.25 ± 0.55	16.08 ± 0.48	15.90 ± 0.32
Egg shell weight, g	5.47 ± 0.26	5.28 ± 0.25	5.38 ± 0.25	5.49 ± 0.35
Albumen weight, g	38.44 ± 2.17^ab	36.78 ± 1.40^a	37.87 ± 1.45^ab	39.24 ± 1.15^b
Albumen height, mm	6.92 ± 0.43^ab	6.73 ± 0.47^ab	6.71 ± 0.24^a	7.23 ± 0.23^b
Egg shell thickness, mm	0.35 ± 0.02	0.35 ± 0.01	0.34 ± 0.03	0.35 ± 0.02
Egg specific gravity	1.082 ± 0.004	1.080 ± 0.001	1.080 ± 0.005	1.080 ± 0.002
Egg shell strength, N	34.4 ± 2.2	34.4 ± 2.0	32.6 ± 4.6	35. 3 ± 3.6
Yolk cholesterol, mg/g	14.20 ± 0.66	14.06 ± 0.34	13.50 ± 0.66	13.69 ± 0.71

^a,bMeans in the same row without a letter in common are different (P < 0.05).

ISSN: 2049-1891